Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington returned home today after emergency meetings yesterday in Washington with his Guatemalan counterparts. They met under
the auspices of the OAS, to discuss the tense confrontation between the Guatemalan Armed Forces and the Belize Defence Force Soldiers who are stationed at
the Sarstoon Forward Operating Base.
So, how did the meeting go? And, what was the outcome? That's what we wanted to ask Foreign Minister Elrington when he landed at the PGIA today. But,
he flatly refused, saying that both he and the Representative for the PUP, Assad Shoman, would give a joint statement tomorrow.
The BDF reports that late on Saturday evening, 8 Guatemalan soldiers approached the BDF soldiers at their base on the Belize side of the Sarstoon. A
government release says they "behaved in an extremely hostile and threatening manner", insisting that Belize's military shouldn't be at the Sarstoon.
With the rapid intervention of the General and the Prime Minister, the confrontation ended without incident.
As you heard last night, the Guatemalan Government has responded to Belize's protest note by completely denying that there was any confrontation. They
say that the BDF didn't check in last Friday at the Guatemalan military base, right across the river from the BDF Forward Operating Base. The
Guatemalans say that this is standard procedure, and moreover, the BDF supposedly cut a Guatemalan fisherman's drag net with their vessel's engine.
They say that they did not aggress the BDF soldiers, and that they were only protecting their sovereignty over the Sarstoon River, as they always have
done.
That's the problem, because Belize's borders ends at the southern channel in the Sarstoon River, which is south of the Sarstoon Island, and so the
river remains a flashpoint for the Belize Guatemala Territorial Dispute.
That's what both sides took into their meetings in Washington yesterday – with the OAS attempting to defuse a very volatile situation. Reports say that
as an act of goodwill in the confidence-building framework, Belize has offered to adjust its referendum law. As the law currently stands, a 60% vote is
needed to make a referendum valid; Belize – reports suggest - would be willing to revisit it's law to make it a simple majority. This could make it
easier for a PRO ICJ vote to pass.
COLA, doesn't like the sound of that one bit – and today issued a release saying, quote,
"This only indicates Belize's willingness to appease Guatemala…The time for fruitless talks mediated by the OAS has passed…Belize should place an
embargo on Guatemalan imports (and) internationalize the matter.
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