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As we first reported two days ago, Belize is holding discussions in the background of the Assembly's regular business to try and save the Confidence Building Measures and the OAS Adjacency Office. Those are funded by international friends of Belize who are fast losing patience because Guatemala has ducked out on the promised 2013 referendum. It's critical, because the consensus opinion in both government and opposition is that without those measures, there's no avenue to solve the territorial dispute, and without dialogue there is bound to be discord.

As the General Assembly was winding up, we spoke to Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington about the problems they are facing:..

Hon. Wilfred Elrington - Belize Minister of Foreign Affairs
"There are very formal in arriving at decisions to provide assistance and once they decide on a formula for assisting you that is based on specific undertaking. When that situation changes, they automatically freeze their funds. So for example in relation to the funding which they had provided for the education campaign and to assist us in the matter - they had given us two million Euros which came up to about 2.5 million dollars, that was provided to the OAS to help fund the education campaign in Belize and Guatemala. But as soon as it was announced that in fact the referendum was going to be postponed they gave instructions to freeze those funds. SO you can't touch them anymore and to get them reinstated or unfrozen, will take a whole process under their system. Also too the continued financing of the OAS adjacency zone office was predicated on the fact that we intend to go to referendum as quickly as possible, take the matter to court - they don't intend to continue to finance that office indefinitely. At the last report we got, there is only money at the OAS to continue the offices operations for the next two months."

Reporter
"What are the concerns for Belize if that happens?"

Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"If that happens then we won't have the assistance that we're now having in getting verification when we have these border incidences. Having continued presence of the OAS on the ground in Belize as it were keeping an eye on things even though that is not necessarily there function, those are very serious matters."

Jules Vasquez
"We have no fault in this, it is because one or two partners in this is a dishonourable partner who historically does not keep his word."

Hon. Wilfred Elrington
"I will not categorize the other side as that really. These are difficult negotiations."