P.M. says Guatemalan president being sabotaged
While an air of Marion induced fantasy hovered over Belize City today, events over a hundred miles to the southwest served to bring many Belizeans back to reality. Whipped up by a jingoistic press and opportunistic military, Guatemalan officials have been making unfriendly noises and threatening to defend to the death the rights of hundreds of Guatemalan squatters illegally settled on the Belize side of the border. This afternoon Prime Minister Said Musa took time out from his duties as a host to address the developments along the border.
Stewart Krohn
Prime Minister how concerned should Belizeans be at what is now taking place at the Belize Guatemalan border??
Prime Minister Said Musa
?Well concerned is a good word I would say, we should not be alarmed, but of course we all have to be concerned that as far as we are concerned, we made an agreement with Guatemalans in November last year and they have not been keeping to the agreement so far.?
?We agreed that the settlements that originated after October first outside of the adjacency zone, the one kilometre zone, that Belize has its sovereign right to remove these people. Now they are insisting that all these settlements should come within the terms of the facilitators. Secondly, they have not been keeping their word in the agreement because they also agree that we would move towards opening up the line, clearing the markers, which is the crucial issue here. Until we clear that border line, people, whether they be Guatemalans or Belizeans, will not be sure as the where they are cause they are because the truth of the matter is we?re talking about high bush in most of the border areas.?
?So really, we are a little frustrated that the Guatemalans sit down and sign these agreements, but so far has not been keeping to the agreements. We hopeful that the meeting in Miami on the sixteenth will clear the air, that they will realise that if they are serious about negotiating in good faith, about trying to resolve this problem in good faith as we are doing, that we will be able to move forward on this issue.?
?The point I would like to make is that some elements in Guatemala try to project Belize as being the offending party, as if though we are harassing their farmers when the truth of the matter is that these farmers, these settlers are illegal immigrants. They are illegal settlers in our country, we have every right to remove them, but we are acting with absolute restraint because we do not want any conflict at all and it is not in our interest to exercise and kind of bravado attitude in this. I know the Belizean people are a little perhaps over concerned that we have not been as forceful as we can be as a sovereign nation, but sometimes, discussion is the better part of valor and in this case we have been asked by the facilitators to exercise absolute restraint and to give them a chance to really come down and to verify and to prove to the world that these people are illegal settlers and that they are in Belize, and we think that it?s only fair that we should allow that process to continue.?
Stewart Krohn
?On the face of things, it looks like Belize backed down in the face of a threat from a stronger bully. When dealing with a bully, doesn?t appeasement sometimes or oftentimes end up only hurting in the long run??
Prime Minister Said Musa
?Well this was not appeasement. We were at the point of serving the eviction notice when I got first a telephone call and then a fax message signed by both facilitators, realizing that the situation could have been volatile, could have been dangerous, and they appealed to me to say we are requesting, we are asking you to please do not proceed with the eviction although you may have all right to do so, please do not do so at this time. Give us a chance to meet with the Guatemalans and yourself that we can clear the whole issue, verify it and then you can go ahead and remove them.?
Stewart Krohn
?With Guatemala demonstrating this kind of attitude so relatively early in the talks, you must be fearful that this is really going to be an exercise in futility. What is your prognosis for the future??
Prime Minister Said Musa
?One of the problems we are faced with is that I still maintain that we are dealing in good faith with President Portillo. He assured me over Christmas, we spoke on the telephone that he wants to have this matter resolved amicably and peacefully, that he has absolutely no problem with working with Belize as a neighbour. In fact he?s fully supported Belize becoming a member of SICA, Guatemala supported us under Portillo. But the problem we are faced with here is that the dynamics in Guatemala are such that there are some elements it seems to me who would like to sabotage the process which has been started by the President and the Foreign Minister. These elements are perhaps in the Peten region where the problem really exists and I think it?s a case where the Guatemalan authorities would have to get a handle on these elements which obviously are out to sabotage a process that he has fully supported all along.?
The agreement that the Guatemalan government is having so much trouble understanding was signed on November eighth at the OAS in Washington, D.C.
