Territorial Volunteers Hit Back at P.M.

This afternoon, the leader of the Belize Territorial Volunteers, Wil Maheia, issued a video response to the pronouncements of Prime Minister Dean Barrow on the I.C.J. issue. Maheia also spoke on the recent report about increased presence of Guatemalans in the Chiquibul and the efforts to reach across the border to help out.  On the first, he reiterated that are still other options such as the United Nations Security Council. On the latter, Maheia says Belize should make greater use of its human and strategic resources instead of going cap in hand to the very people that are causing the trouble.

Wil Maheia

Wil Maheia, Belize Territorial Volunteers

“When [the Prime Minister] is saying he doesn’t see what else we can do except going to I.C.J., we think that is totally wrong because there are so many other things we can do instead of trying to convince the people of Belize to vote yes to go to the I.C.J. we could have taken this to the Security Council. So when the Prime Minister is going to say that there is nothing much that can be done, or he doesn’t see anything else that can be done, I would like to call the attention of the people of Belize to be very careful and think about it. This is the same Prime Minister that told us, the people of Belize, that he had an ironclad case when it came to B.T.L.; today we are in the hole hundreds of millions of dollars. We are also very disappointed in the fact that we are seeking the assistance of the Guatemalans to help us to curb the incursions into the Chiquibul. When we have fixed wing aircraft, we have helicopters, we have boots on the ground, there is no need for us to go to Guatemala to seek their assistance. We need to man our borders and it is not a long border. So we at the B.T.V. would like to call on the association of protected areas managers, the NGO’s – BNN, PACT and all of the other people who care about protected areas to help step up the enforcement effort. When it comes to the Chiquibul, the Prime Minister makes it look like the Chiquibul is this terrain that is almost impossible for us to patrol; that is what our men and women in the B.D.F. are trained for, that is what the rangers are trained for. We know it is rugged terrain but it is nothing we can’t handle. We know organizations – the Belize Territorial Volunteers have been in the Chiquibul; have been in the Columbia Forest, and it’s not impossible. What we need to do is to be serious about patrolling the Chiquibul and the Columbia forest reserve and the Sarstoon. That’s what we need to do – not looking for excuses. This is our country and we need to take care of it. We say no to the I.C.J.”

The argument of going the route of the United Nations Security Council has also been put forward by the Belize Progressive Party.  We note that it is not the Security Council, but its judicial arm, the International Court of Justice, that settles legal claims.