Eamon Courtenay Says No Excuse for Lack of Communication

Eamon Courtenay

You’ll notice that while Guatemala did not reject the assertion by Minister Elrington, they didn’t accept it either, so therein may lie the confusion. As was stated by Prime Minister Dean Barrow on Friday, there are also frequent claims by Guatemala that decisions made in these high-level meetings do not always reach the Sarstoon. Courtenay dismissed that reasoning as completely unacceptable.

Senator Eamon Courtenay, Opposition Representative, Belize Delegation

“Minister Elrington specifically said that this understating, the fact that we will be using the river, ought to be communicated to everyone. I do not accept this justification, this explanation, this excuse that perhaps it is that the message has not been communicated to those on the ground. In this day and age that is unacceptable to start with, but more importantly, when the members of the media were in the Sarstoon and they said to the officer, but checked with your officials…they checked. So there can be no excuse that it hadn’t reached down to Sarstoon. The people on the ground checked. The point is this…Guatemala clearly maintains that they are entitled to all of the Sarstoon; they clearly maintain that they are going to exercise their right over the Sarstoon. That is unacceptable to Belize and it highlights the urgency for this matter to be dealt with. And the release that the People’s United Party issued today is to underline our call for all hands on deck, for an urgent approach to this matter and we have the evidence now that until and unless it is in black and white, this matter will remain unresolved.”