And you'll remember that at the ICJ launch event, Elrington said, "you've got to be crazy", if you don't want to take the Guatemalan claim to the ICJ.
He took a lot of public heat for that, and Elrington, who's no stranger to controversy, was being put on blast for his "refugee" comment, which he made last night at the town hall meeting on the ICJ.
Today, his word choice on this topic came up, and he freely acknowledged that he has misspoken:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington - Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Because I, Wilfred Elrington, am a citizen of Belize and I have rights and cares and interests just like anybody else. When I am talking I tell people, 'go to the ICJ.' And because of the knowledge that I have I tend to get emotional like anybody else and have at least on one occasion said, 'you've got to be crazy if you don't want to go.' But that is not a fair statement to make because most people don't know what I know. I have been dealing with this problem from the time I was born. I was born in 1948. That is the year in which the British came. As I said, I have rioted in every Guatemalan disturbance; I have been arrested and convicted of fighting against the Guatemalan claim. I was there at the Webster proposal, I was there at the heads of agreement, and we stopped those initiatives. Had we not stopped those initiatives Belize would have been part of Guatemala today. So, I know firsthand. So, when you hear me say 'you have got to be crazy if you don't want to go' it is because of the peculiar knowledge that I have. But it doesn't mean that people who don't know what I know are crazy. I am much more respectful of my people but I feel so emotional about it. And as I said to a group the other day, maybe I would not be so passionate if in fact they vote no and they alone will go down. But if you vote no the whole country will become refugees if the Guatemalan's come across and start to chase us out. So, I have a personal stake in it. And so I tend to be more emotional than maybe I should be but the truth is that this is a deadly and serious issue we are dealing with."
Email
Print