G.O.B. on the defensive about I.C.J.

The government continues to find itself on the defensive in regards to the Guatemalan claim to Belize and the path to the I.C.J. And when the House opened this morning, the P.M. dealt front on with the issue. He said he’s been hearing people calling in on the radio shows saying that going to court to settle the dispute is a betrayal and unpatriotic. According to the P.M. persons who don’t agree can simply vote “no” in the referendum.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“My goodness, let us be clear as to what has happened here and to the fact that all that has happened is that we’ve agreed that a question formed in a certain manner can be put to the I.C.J. if the people of this country so desire. To be casting aspersions on the ministers patriotism, to be accusing the government of betrayal in these circumstances, really Mr. Speaker, is intolerable. I hear them saying that the government ought to have consulted on even the framing of the special agreement and on the question that is to be put to the I.C.J. if the referendum passes. How on earth, as a matter of logistics, as a matter of common sense, as a matter of practicality could we have involved the Belizean people on the drafting of the special agreement, on the framing of the question? However wrongheaded I think they are, those who feel that the process has gone wrong from the start surely ought to content themselves with knowing that in the end that wrong start in their view can be turned back by simply voting no if and when the referendum comes. This is the ultimate safeguard. The government absolutely needed to have negotiated and signed that special agreement. Nobody will get us to apologise for doing that.”