7 News Belize

Will GOB Ask ICJ For Provisional Measures To Keep Guat In Check?
posted (May 9, 2019)
And once the case is filed - it would seem that one of the most urgent matters is to apply to the ICJ for what are called "provisional measures" to get some protection from the Guatemalan military on the Sarstoon.

This is a kind of interim relief from aggression by another sovereign that Judge Stephen Schwebel advised the Prime Minister to do recently. He said that if we vote yes in the referendum, quote, "...it would be open to Belize to apply to the Court for its issuance of provisional measures to direct Guatemala to cease and desist from its actions on the Sarstoon and .....respect the terms of the 1859 Treaty and Guatemala's own acceptance of the Sarstoon boundary by word and deed for some 150 years..."

Today, the Prime Minister said that is an option, but with the "yes" vote, it might not even be necessary:..

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I have no idea of how soon the process has started. That would be on, how soon it will be possible to make that application. I am hopeful that perhaps there might not be a need to. The fact that we are both now agreed to go to court. Maybe we will represent some sort of a breakthrough and in anticipation of what is to come even though it is some distance in the future. Hopefully the two sides can get together and come up with this understanding protocol by another name that might see us agree on ways to deal with the Sarstoon that would be mutually respectful and would have avoid the creation of any flashpoints."

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