Washington DC - 06 February, 2001.
Belize-Guatemala Talks Resume
Karla Heusner, Washington DC
February 5, 2001

Belize and Guatemala started another round of talks Monday in Washington DC at the Organization of American States Headquarters. The OAS is a neutral backdrop for the discussions which, at this stage, are still laying the foundation for future meetings which will look in detail at Guatemala’s long standing territorial claim to portions of Belize. However, the Belize delegation headed by Ambassador Assad Shoman is hoping that a number of outstanding issues, including the recent illegal Guatemalan settlements along the border, can be addressed, either as part of the current talks or separately.

Ambassador Shoman and the Opposition United Democratic Party's representative on the negotiating team, Ambassador Fred Martinez, spoke with members of the Belizean press this morning at the Belize Mission to Washington. " This meeting was agreed to and set before the problems we encountered in December, January emerged. The purpose is for us to come up with ideas as to process that will be used to discuss the substantive claim, in other words we are not going to be discussing anything to do with the claim itself, that's for a future date. However, we have made it known to the other parties, the facilitators that we need to reach a point where we feel the confidence is high enough and the tension low enough for us to even begin to discuss procedures."

The 'tensions" include the situation with the Guatemalan flag at the Santa Rosa school, accusations by Guatemala that Belize Defense Force soldiers destroyed property belonging to Guatemalans at Santa Cruz in Guatemala and the illegal settlements at Machaquilla and Rio Blanco. Shoman is also hoping that the results of the mapping mission carried out by the Pan American Institute of Geography and History will be presented, sometime over the next two days, to the two men acting as facilitators for the talks, Sir Shridath Ramphal and Paul Reichler.

Both Guatemala and Belize agreed to accept the Institute's assistance because of a discrepancy between the coordinates for the markers demarcating an adjacency line between the two countries and surrounding adjacency zone adopted during a confidence building agreement in November. Agreement on the coordinates is crucial to determining if the recent Guatemala settlements are indeed encroaching on Belizean territory, a position the Belize government has maintained since the settlers were discovered on January 1st. Guatemala has protested that Belize cannot make a unilateral decision to expel them, saying it would contravene the November confidence building agreement, and referred the matter to the facilitators.

With respect to the alleged incident at Santa Cruz, Shoman says Belize does not want such accusations "to stay on the book but the opportunity to call for an investigation to clear our name."

Although Belize is hoping for some assurance from the facilitators that these concerns will be addressed they expect the overall discussions to proceed smoothly and as cordially as in the past. Ambassador Martinez emphasized that there is no political divisiveness within the Belize delegation and that Belize will present a unified front. “We have always faced up to the negotiations as one solid Belizean position, not the PUP, not the UDP. Our {the UDP's} concerns are addressed, have always been addressed.”

He is conscious that some Belizeans may feel such talks are futile, or that Belize should not even participate, but he believes progress is being made and must be made: "As neighbors and members of the international community we must sit down and talk; to many it may appear to be a waste of time to us it is not, it is keeping the peace in the region, keeping the process alive…it is not going to go away overnight, we have to defend our right and we have to defend them forcefully to the to the Guatemalans”

Ambassador Shoman feels Belizeans need to become informed and debate the issue amongst themselves. "This is the biggest national issue we have, it should not only take center stage when we have a Machaquilla.”

The talks are expected to last until Wednesday. The Belize delegation includes Permanent Secretary in the Minstry of Foreign Affairs, David Gibson, Ambassadors Lisa Shoman, Eamon Courtenay, Moises Cal, Salvador Figueroa, Fred Martinez, and Stuart Leslie. Permanent Secretary Alan Usher is also present.