British express support for O.A.S. process
For the Belizean public in the wake of failure of the facilitation process, the issue of settling the Guatemalan claim isn’t just on the back burner–it’s not even on the stove. As for the Guatemalans, evidence suggests that any serious attempts at a settlement never made it to the kitchen. But you’d never know that listening to the British. Having come up a day late and a pound short in 1859, a century and a half later they’re hoping that this time around dollar diplomacy will work its magic. Today British M.P. and Minister of State Bill Rammell arrived in Belize to spread the religion of cooperation between Belize and Guatemala. His first stop was the border… known to diplomats as the adjacency zone. News 5’s Patrick Jones was there.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minster responsible for the Caribbean and Latin America arrived by helicopter after a brief visit to a U.K. funded xate plantation project outside of Melchor de Mencos, Guatemala. Reading from a prepared statement, Bill Rammell told O.A.S., Belizean, and Guatemalan officials that efforts to ease tension on the border are applauded by London.
Bill Rammell, F.C.O. Minister for Latin America
“We certainly believe within the U.K. government that the O.A.S. facilitation of dialogue between Belize and Guatemala is indispensable to achieving a negotiated and lasting settlement to the differences. And we do believe and this is something that I have been discussing in Guatemala and I want to continue discussing in Belize about, that the confidence building measures are so important. Because it think in any political difference that exists, the more you can get ordinary people to live together, to work together, to talk together, the much, much easier it is to break down differences and make progress.”
And talking about breaking down, Director of the O.A.S. office at the border, Mathias Kruger, updated the visiting British M.P. on the situation with an illegal Guatemalan settlement on the Belize side. Kruger says work on relocating the settlers has started.
Mathias Kruger
“We have received all the official okays to start construction on the fifteenth December. We have been waiting a bit now to get all the money in place and to get all the bureaucracy going, but we will start putting the first blocks in the ground next week or somewhere around that. Earlier we have been trying to be a bit proactive and progress with the legalization of the new area, that has to be done otherwise the mayorship in Melchor de Mencos will not be able to neither sell it, much less donate it to the people, you know.”
And to help with the overall work of the O.A.S. office, Rammell today handed over a cheque for two hundred thousand dollars to Kruger.
Mathias Kruger
“In what’s called the barrio nuevo huda, we found more or less around fifteen families living on the eastern side of the adjacency line, or too close to the adjacency line to be able to say that they were outside the margin of errors. We talked to these people and they all voluntarily included in this initiative that will give them an option to move to better living conditions voluntarily without risking their houses to be an object of international tension or something like that.”
Rammell told News 5 that he is encouraged by the opportunities for a definitive settlement of the Guatemalan claim.
Bill Rammell
“There’s a lot further to go. What I am very conscious of is that with a re-elected government in Belize, a newly elected government in Guatemala, there is a significant opportunity to take this process forward. We very much believe that that’s got to happen within the O.A.S. framework. We are spending a significant amount of money on confidence building measures to bring people together on both sides of the border, to break down the barriers.”
The visiting British M.P. says once the two sides can move the process forward to a final and lasting settlement, his government and others are willing to invest significant amounts of money, as much as two hundred million dollars, to help the Belizean and Guatemalan people.
Bill Rammell
“I hope that within a relatively short period of time that they will begin to take this process forward. I am very struck by the degree to which ordinary people want to see this issue resolved. They want to put it behind them and they actually want to take the economic benefits that will come from a just and lasting settlement.”
Patrick Jones for News 5.
On Saturday Rammell will present a cheque for one hundred and eighty-four thousand dollars to the University of Belize to co-host an international conference on conflict resolution with the University of San Carlos in Guatemala. He will also preside over the official launching of the Belize British Chamber of Commerce.
