New talks in Guatemalan claim – previous proposals shelved
Tonight there is significant news from the Belize-Guatemala front: the Ramphal/Reichler proposals have been shelved, demoted to nothing more than paperweights. According to Belize’s lead negotiator in the Guatemalan claim to our territory, Assad Shoman, this week both countries have begun to chart a new course towards a solution acceptable on both sides of the border. Under the auspices of the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza in Washington D.C., Shoman and Guatemalan Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Briz signed an agreement for a framework for negotiations and confidence building measures. A lot of the details have yet to be fine-tuned, but essentially the document sets out guidelines designed to promote peace and development until a final agreement can be reached. The negotiators also promise that talks will pick up in intensity, vowing to meet every forty-five days in either Belize, Guatemala, or in Washington.
Among the changes from previous accords is that the settlers in the remote village of Santa Rosa, if they so choose, will be relocated in Guatemala. A Belize-Guatemala Joint Commission will also be established to encourage development initiatives including trade opportunities, tourism ventures, and protection of resources. But what’s innately different about this treaty is that it could prove to be the beginning of the end of the Guatemalan claim because instead of being buried in bureaucratic red tape, if negotiations fail, both sides have agreed to take the case to the International Court of Justice. This afternoon, Ambassador Shoman and the Opposition’s representative, Diane Haylock, briefed the Belizean media on the legal aspects of the agreement.
Assad Shoman, Negotiator
“I see it almost impossible for any Guatemalan Government to sign an agreement recognising all the territory of Belize as we know it and surviving in the present Guatemalan climate, maybe a hundred years from now, but not now. Therefore, the hope that we see in this agreement is that it recognises that and it leaves the door open for a body that is not either the Government of Guatemala or the Government of Belize, but outside of that, a body that we both have put our trust in, which is the Secretary General of the Organization of American States: simply to say to us, I don’t think you are going to reach an agreement so you better go to some court. And we take that on seriously and try to pass it through our internal constitutional processes and then get to that stage. So from that point of view, I am hopeful that we could take it to court if we cannot reach and agreement, which as I said, is going to be extremely difficult.”
Diane Haylock, Opposition’s Representative
“This process requires for us to develop a major communication strategy that we will then be able to use to keep the people, not just informed, but engaged, in a discussion about it. Because it is not about saying to them this is happening, but it is to get feedback from them. So that by the time, if we should get to the stage where we are talking about going to the International Court of Justice, it won’t be something that will come as a surprise to the people.”
The first meeting under this new treaty will be held on October thirty-first in Belize.
