And while those are criminal matters, back to the Modiri/Paumen civil suit. As we told you, Michael Modiri won a second major decision against his Franks Eddy neighbor, Bradley Paumen. The court ruled Paumen, one of Belize's biggest tour operators, was trespassing on Modiri's land to get his guests to a cave site. A portion of Modiri's land was bulldozed and a road was built on top of it just so that the Dark Knight Tour Guests could get to the cave system. Right now, that's still the only way that Paumen's employees can access the caves because both Modiri and Paumen are landlocked.
So, since the court has ruled that it is illegal, and no alternatives have been identified to avoid the trespass, shouldn't the Dark Knight Tour be temporarily closed? That's what we asked NICH's Director of Archaeology last week, and here's how he responded:
Dr. John Morris, Director of Archaeology
"We cannot stop somebody from going into your property. That is a function of the police of the security of this country. We can stop you from entering the cave but if you have a tour operating license and you get to the mouth of the cave, we cannot stop you. We can sit down with the other authorities and say 'look this person is trespassing on someone else's property to reach the cave so we should work together to solve that particular problem'."
Reporter 1
"Given the reality of the legal situation in terms of the layout of these lands and the inherent trespassing that will be involve if they continue to housed these tourists at that particular site, shouldn't your department be concerned about that aspect of it as well?"
Reporter 2
"And look at ending their license if they are going to operate illegally somewhere else."
Dr. John Morris, Director of Archaeology
"They are, like I said, a tour operator license and a tour guide license are not issued by the institute of archeology. They are issued by the Belize Tourist Board. If the Belize Tourist Board issues you a tour guide license or a tour operator license, then we are obligated by law to allow you to take your tourists to any of the archeological reserves. That is the way it works, when they cancel those licenses then they send us a letter saying 'we have cancelled these people licenses' and then we take action after that."
Modiri has told the media that he is willing to allow Paumen to access the road built on his land as long as he pays rent. No such arrangement has been announced since.
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