It may be the hottest hearing at the high court, but the Maya Land
Rights case has been put on the judicial backburner for the time being. The
hearing has been delayed until July following a meeting between the attorneys.
Chief Justice Dr. Abdulai Conteh has scheduled the case to proceed on July eight,
ninth and tenth. The extended adjournment was necessitated because the Attorney
General’s representative Senior Counsel Lois Young, is currently before
the Court of Appeal on other cases and because the Chief Justice himself will
be out of the country for two weeks. But attorney for the Maya, Antoinette Moore
told us today that she is disappointed by the fact that the Government is putting
forward what she calls the same old…and flawed…arguments in this
new case.
Antonette Moore, Attorney for Mayas
“It is essentially argument rehashed that was put to the court in
2007 when the first Mayan land rights case was brought. The issue of extinguishment,
whether the rights were extinguished at sovereignty, the issue of continuity,
whether people who reside in southern Belize now are descendants of the ancient
Mayas. The government is even raising the issue again of whether the people
who reside in southern Belize, the Maya people, are indigenous which I find
a very odd thing for them to be saying considering that the government of Belize
has acknowledged that they are indigenous people and has even acknowledged their
rights as indigenous people.
I think this is such a serious matter for the country and historically
and for generations to come that I had hoped it would be argued in a more, I
won’t say vigorous manner, but perhaps a different manner than it is being
argued. I won’t say that it fuels my confidence. I am confident in our
case not because of what the government has put forth but because of what the
claimants have put forth.”
In addition to responding to the Attorney General’s arguments,
Moore will also be answering submissions made by Rodwell Williams on behalf
of the first interested party, Francis Johnson.
Email
Print