On Thursday, 7News showed you the long anticipated judgment from the Court of Appeal in relation to the Appeal by the Government of Belize on the Maya Land Rights case.
The Maya Communities of the south won in the Supreme Court hear before former Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh, when he ruled that they had customary land rights over their ancestral lands, and he also ordered that the Government of Belize should also take mandatory steps to protect those rights.
Well, in the judgment from the Court of Appeal, it was found that while Maya Land Rights can and do exist, GOB had no such obligation to uphold them.
The attorney for the Maya Communities, Antoinette Moore filed an application for contempt against the Government in the Supreme Court, in which the complaint was that the Government was not respecting an injunction granted by the Former CJ Conteh stopping them from issuing any permits to conduct any kinds of commercial activity without the explicit consent of the Maya Communities.
This application was to be heard today, and when the Chief Justice called it up, Moore informed the court that her clients wished to withdraw the application. That withdrawal was granted and the matter was dismissed.
Moore explained to us outside of court that her clients decided that in the light of the Appeal Court judgment, they felt that their resources would be better spent dealing with how they will move forward with the bigger case.
But, there are 4 former Alcaldes from the south who are complaining that they wished to be removed from the case. They showed up at court today after getting an email, and no other notification, that they were expected to be present for the contempt proceedings.
Their issue is that they are no longer associated with the Maya Leaders Alliance, but they are still being used as claimants without their consent.
Today, the former Chairman of the Alliance explained the issue to us today:
"We made all effort to be here because I received an email where I read that the Mayan alliance want to take back the government to court and when I read that document - it's a contempt of court and we were not informed and they are using my name out there on the claimant's list. I'm very concerned because I don't know what is happening and I would like to listen and get to know more of what is transpiring with these guys; they should have informed me. I wrote a letter and I scanned it and emailed it to their attorney asking them to remove my name because I don't want to continue being a claimant. I will wait for their response whether they will remove my name or not. Then I might think what steps I should take again to remove my name because I am not presently with these organizations."