7 News Belize

The Government Versus The Maya Leaders Alliance
posted (March 21, 2011)
For the past three days, the Justices of the Court of Appeal have been hearing submissions in the matter of the Attorney General versus the Maya Leaders Alliance and others.

The Government's contention is that the Chief Justice erred in his ruling that thirty-eight villages in southern Belize are entitled to customary land tenure rights. The Mayas believe that they are entitled to these rights because their ancestors were the indigenous population prior to any sovereignty being established.

However, Belmopan's legal representative Senior Counsel Lois Young has argued that any indigenous rights the Maya held were extinguished by Spanish and later, British colonizers.

Young told the court, "When the British arrived, there were no Maya Indians of whatever group, whatever race, in [what is now] Belize." She went on to declare, "The Mayas do have a moral justification for feeling that they own the land they occupy but nothing more. This is a matter that must be addressed by the Belizean society as a whole, led by the government. This is a matter that would require a nationwide consultation process. There are competing interests here…other groups who have to be taken into account. There has to be a process. There is no juridical basis for the Chief Justice's judgment."

The other groups referred to in that statement is the Garinagu people, who Young asserts, have been in Belize just as long as the Mayans who are now claiming indigenous rights.

Young concluded, "This is a land problem…endemic to Belize…and to all races. No group should be given special privileges or rights. This is all about obtaining a piece of land in order to better yourself economically. Nothing is wrong with that but other groups in Belize would also like to have that."

Strong statements but this morning attorney for the Mayas, Senior Counsel Antoinette Moore was unfazed, maintaining that these arguments were also put before the Supreme Court.

Antoinette Moore, Lawyer
"My confidence stems from looking at the case as a whole. That one quotation from someone who wrote down something in the 1800s, is not the case. The case is a totality of all of the evidence from both sides and of the legal principles that must be applied to the evidence. So my confidence stems from my belief in justice and my confidence stems from my total, total belief that the Court of Appeals, just as the court below, will look at all of the evidence and will be able to reach a just decision."

The case is being heard by President of the Court of Appeal Justice Sosa, flanked by Justices Morrison and Alleyne. And while the case will continue on Tuesday, so too does an education and awareness campaign launched by the Alcades of the thirty-eight villages in question. According to Chairman of the Toledo Alcalde Association, Alfonso Cal, the judgment of the former Chief Justice, Dr. Abdulai Conteh, has been printed on scrolls which are being distributed to all the villages. According to Cal, the idea is simple.

Alfonso Cal, Chair, Toledo Alcalde association
"We are trying to educate them that so in showing them and educating them, what the court has ruled, you know, this will stand for us forever. And we will remember and we want other people to respect and recognize this scroll too. This is how we are trying to train them."

Attorney for the Mayans Antoinette Moore, will continue her submissions to the Court on Tuesday.

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