UDP ready to assist with Guatemalan dispute

The Leader of the Opposition commented today on the return of the Belizean patrol, saying he is glad that the men received legal representation and are home safe. He says he still believes the BDF need to review the way in which they deal with border encounters, but that cannot be done in isolation. He says the UDP is ready to join in any effort to try and prevent future conflicts and to resolve the larger border dispute.

Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“That must go hand in hand with some effort to persuade the Guatemalans. Again working through the international community, coming to the table to discuss what happens when there is any kind of an encounter. What happens, well in advance of an encounter, how you communicate with each other to make sure that there are not the sort of…the steps that happened in this case. I don’t know if the government has announced any plan of doing this, we will continue to call for that sort of….”<

Karla Heusner, Reporting

“Would you participate…?”

Dean Barrow

“Absolutely, we said that. And in terms of the National Advisory Commission, we had indicated that if government is prepared to review the terms of reference, because basically the commission had been limited to what would come out of the joint Belize Guatemala external commission, which we knew wasn’t going to happen. I now have word from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the government has agreed. So while there was an initial meeting on Friday that we couldn’t attend, it’s been said clearly to us that the whole thing–all options–are to be considered in term of reviewing the terms of reference. We are, under those circumstances, happy to participate and will participate.”