And while today may indeed be one for the books - there is some serious business to take care of, and that's on the Sarstoon - the river that marks Belize's southern boundary. As you heard, the opposition leader stressed that Guatemala's aggressive military tactics on the Sarstoon must stop - either through an accord with the Guatemalans, or through provisional measures from the International Court of Justice.
The Prime Minister repeated what he said 11 days ago, that he would prefer to work it out with the Guatemalans:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow- Prime Minister
"It is my hope that the Guatemalan's, recognizing that we are now both committed to go to the ICJ and knowing as well as we do that that opens the door to Belize's ability to apply for provisional measures to deal with the situation at the Sarstoon, which continues to be unacceptable to us, that for that reason the Guatemalan's might think it best to come to some reasonable understanding so as to obviate the need for us to start the contentious confrontational leading proceedings right at the beginning. Rather than simply sitting by and waiting for the Guatemalan's upon our urgings to come to terms with us regarding the Sarstoon, the legal team has already been given instructions to prepare the brief to support the application to the ICJ for the provisional measures. There is nothing to hide. The leader is perfectly correct, one wouldn't have thought so a few weeks ago, but the leader is perfectly correct in saying that this is now and always has been or ought to have been a national issue."
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