Foreign Minister Elrington Returns from Washington, Any Good News?

Foreign Minister Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington returned from Washington this morning after leading a delegation of government representatives to meet with Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales and his delegation along with the O.A.S. Secretary General Luis Almagro.  Since Istanbul, Turkey, it was the first round of talks at the ministerial level towards formulating a mutual Sarstoon protocol. But by all accounts the delegation returned empty-handed. The gathering, sans a representative from the Opposition, met in an extended session on Tuesday at the seat of the Organization of American States.  Five hours later, they emerged with nothing tangible.  That is to say, that not even a draft protocol has been agreed upon, nor is there anything in writing coming out of the D.C. meeting.  This morning, what we learnt is that a vague timeline has been hammered out and negotiations are set to conclude by the end of the year.  B.D.F. Commander David Jones reiterated that they are moving towards free and unimpeded access for all Belizeans to traverse the Sarstoon, but Elrington was seemingly circumspect.

Wilfred ’Sedi’ Elrington

Wilfred ’Sedi’ Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“Meetings take place in phases and stages, you discuss certain aspects of it at one time and then at another time you discuss other aspects of it.  You can’t discuss all of it at once.  When we had done the, when the confidence building were done in 2005 it took some time.  Negotiations take time to be concluded. We have a rough timeline.”

Reporter

“When is it?”

Wilfred ’Sedi’ Elrington

“I think we should hopefully finish between now and the end of the year.”

Reporter

“What part of the phase was conducted yesterday?  You said negotiations were conducted in phases so what was the phase yesterday?”

David Jones

Wilfred ’Sedi’ Elrington

“Continuation of the negotiations between the principals and the generals.  We had both generals there yesterday and we had both foreign ministers.  The last meeting it was only the generals and the technical people from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs.  On this occasion we had both Ministers of Foreign Affairs and then we had the generals, as well as the technical staff of both ministries.”

Brig. Gen. David Jones, Commander, B.D.F.

“The meeting I had with the Guatemalan general prior to this meeting, it went very well [and] he wants the same thing that we want in Belize.  We want to have peace in the area and we are moving towards progress of having all citizens, both Belizeans and Guatemalans, being able to traverse and use the river unimpeded.  We are making that stride and I think that meeting was very successful that we just had and we are moving in that direction.”