In May of last year, the dispute between the Lands Department and the grassroots organization, BGYEA, first emerged in the press over the Harmonyville community housing project. You probably remember that the Lands Department ordered that certain tracts of land set aside for Harmonyville has to be left aside for road reserve.
But, BGYEA members and their supporters believed that the government was being unreasonable because the amount of land that the Lands Department wanted to leave untouched was significantly larger than in other communities. Secondly, they wanted to plant corn in this buffer area, and the proceeds would be used to construct proper roads and other infrastructure for the community. The Government refused to approve it, and when the grassroots organization agitated to move forward with its plans, Government got an injunction to stop them.
Since then, the case has been making its way through the court, and every time that the press asked for an update, BGYEA's attorney asserted that it had stalled because the mediation sessions were not being taken seriously by the Government side, which keep absenting itself. Well, after 9 months of this dispute, it was finally resolved via a mediation session. This afternoon, Audrey Matura-Shepherd, BGYEA's attorney, told us that every single thing that her clients were agitated for was conceded by the Government attorneys:
Audrey Matura-Shepherd, Attorney for BGYEA
"The objective was to try and settle the matter. I mean, it's rather petty what the government was doing, bringing a case of trespass against Mr. Petillo on behalf of BGYEA, when we know really the substantial issue is more than that, it's the unfair treatment where we have grassroots, black Belizeans, are being treated different than the immigrants who wants to squat on the land and also you have to look at the fact that BGYEA was acting in a positive way, where they want to help themselves to develop the community. However, clearly we saw the opportunity of the mediation on this case as an opportunity to deal with some key issues and I think that we successfully did that today. For example: government wants BGYEA to accept that they are the owners of the buffer. Well, any crown land that is not in the hand of a private person - that's like a moot point. They are the legal owners, but what BGYEA always had was an equitable interest because that's land in their community, for which they're told they were co-managers, on which they could not put permanent structures or permanent crops and they were not doing that. However, conceding to that is not a problem, because what we get in return is better. Now government is committing to keeping that buffer clean. That's a big burden off BGYEA. BGYEA was paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep that buffer clean, which is government that is supposed to do that. So, government is agreeing to keep it clean and cleaning it 3 times a year. Also, government is saying, well, since you all want to plant, we will allow you to plant in the reserve areas. Remember, there was the buffer at the top and then there are these big plots of reserves. Some of them 20 acres, some of them 15 acres - it's about 60 acres total. Government is saying, plant your corn there or anywhere else. I mean, that's a huge victory for BGYEA, because they get to plant their corn and they get to take the proceeds of that corn and put it back into the development of the community. The other thing that happen, was government said, well, we not only tell you, you could plant your corn, we are offering seeds and technical assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture. So, we accept that as well and they are also saying that after everything is said and done, when this matter is concluded, we, government commit to go move those squatters that are on the buffer that you keep complaining about. Because we are saying that it's a discriminatory practice for you to come after Nigel Petillo and BGYEA, saying that they are trespassing on the land, when you have some squatters who are more than trespassing - they are trying to squat and get a legal claim to crown land."
So, that should finally put the buffer zone issue to rest since all the agreements coming out of the mediation session will be turned into a court order, which makes them binding. Both sides will make submissions to the court for costs in this lawsuit.
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