Last week Thursday Chief Justice Dr. Abdulai Conteh delivered a landmark
decision which stated that the Maya of Conejo and Santa Cruz have communal land
rights to their traditional lands. Community leaders have called it a Mayan
Independence Day - but what do Belize’s political leaders think? Somewhat
surprisingly, the Prime Minister whose government the suit was brought against
has embraced it, almost as heartily as if he lived in one of the communities!
We have his comments from a political ad showing him discussing it on the rostrum
at a rally in Rancho Dolores Village on Friday. And we spoke to the Leader of
the Opposition about it today.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
“I say this decision was very important because the indigenous people
for centuries have been disadvantaged in the colonial era. They were pushed
aside and told to live in reservations, they couldn’t come like they are
doing now to come and live in Belmopan and villages around Belmopan. They couldn’t
come and live even in this part of the world.
We do recognize that as indigenous people they have certain cultural and
land rights which all Belizeans must recognize and the court has found in their
favor. We respect that decision. In fact I think it was a landmark decision.
In other words their lifestyle is such and their farming practice is such that
they want to have communal land. They don’t want one person to own it
because of the style of agriculture they practice, it’s called a shifting
cultivation. They farm it and then they allow it to fallow for so many years
so that it can become nutritious again and then they go back to it and farm
it again. And that is why they have this communal style of living.
Now we as Belizean people have to understand these things. So we don’t
have any enmity between one Belizean and another Belizean. But we also say to
the Maya leaders that they must understand that any Belizean who wants to go
and live in Toledo has a right to go and live in Toledo as well.”
Hon. Dean Barrow, Opposition Leader
“Socially, politically I think that it is of course a great victory
for the Maya people but a victory to be welcomed by all the people of this country.
I had already had, in my capacity as Leader of the Opposition a few weeks ago, 
a meeting with the Maya Leaders Alliance and we had talked about this much vexed
issue of Maya land rights. And I had said to them that it was clear that certainly
in Santa Cruz, Conejo, and I believe Sundaywood, the inhabitants of the village
were absolutely certain that they wanted to operate in those villages on the
basis of communal traditional Maya rights and I had indicated to them in advance
of the judgment that I would have absolutely no difficulty with that.
But a UDP government would be happy to respect that and therefore not to
be issuing leases or titles or concessions in any of those villages. I am not
sure whether in terms of oil concessions that have already been given out, whether
any of them are in fact in areas that are included in village lands and I recall
that one aspect of the judgment is that proper demarcation be done.
But I acted at one time as you know for SATIIM for which Greg Choq is the
Executive Director and I never understood Greg Choq’s position or the
position of SATIIM to mean that they were fundamentally against oil exploration.
No, their point was that you can’t do this without proper consultation
with the Maya people, without the consent of the Maya people, and of course
without making the right provisions for the apportionment of the revenues that
would be derived if oil is found so that the Maya people can have a particular
trust setup, funded by the oil revenues in their area.”
Email
Print