Border advocate Wil Maheia has been planning another trip down the Sarstoon River, which is to take place this weekend, but once again, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is imploring him not to do it.
Maheia and the Belize Territorial Volunteers want to visit the Gracias a Dios border marker, and that will once again put him and the other Belizeans who take the trip in the crosshairs of the Guatemalan navy, who keep a very watchful eye of the River.
A release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cautions, "while there are no public areas in Belize where Belizeans are not permitted to visit, there are areas in the proximity of our western and southern borders which are prone to generate tensions between the citizens of the two countries, and, in the circumstances, the Ministry maintains its view that it is imprudent and potentially dangerous for the organizers of excursions of this type to expose innocent Belizeans to the risk of inadvertently coming into conflict with Guatemalans be they civilians or officials."
We take it that as they did before, Maheia and the volunteers will exercise their right to free movement. That may cause some tensions on both sides, once again the discussion on the status of the Sarstoon River in the grand scheme of the territorial dispute is being brought up.
As we told you, the Bar Association of Belize held their law conference last week Friday, and they invited presentations from all the experts in the field. One of those was Former Foreign Affairs Minister, Assad Shoman, who was the lead negotiator on the Guatemalan issue for a long time, and he was a co-framer of the Confidence Building Measures.
Today, he stopped by an discussed a few of the points he made to the attorneys who attended the Bar Association Conference:
Assad Shoman, Former Foreign Affairs Minister
"What I said for example to the Bar Association, yes we have to amend the Maritime Areas Act as I mentioned. We have to stop that Guatemalan new position on the Sarstoon and we have to clean up our own house as well. We have to for example, amend the Referendum Act and amend it in the sense that you don't require 60% of people to vote to make the referendum valid and not only because Guatemala has protested about that. But because the act doesn't make sense to me. I mean, we have been taught to believe in democracy. Democracy, we are told means the majority; 50% plus 1 - that's the majority right. If you go to elections who wins? Whoever gets 50% plus 1. So when you give 40% of the electorate the right to block what 59% say, that's not democracy right. It doesn't make sense. So let's change it and also let's be very clear about what we are doing in the Sarstoon and let us call for new confidence building measures. That's the next proposal; new confidence building measures on the Sarstoon. We didn't do it during the facilitation process, because it wasn't a problem. It's a problem now and we need to do it."
As viewers will remember, the authorities in Belize have already revealed that Guatemala's position on the Sarstoon has changed recently, where it's taken a more aggressive profile. Well, Former Diplomat Shoman discussed that with us, and said that the Belize Government should not be taking that light. As a matter of fact, he thinks that whenever there are incidents which shows this new profile, Belize should be making vigorous diplomatic protests.
Some examples which viewers may remember are the regularly trailing of BDF change-over for the Cadenas Observation Post by the Guat Navy, or the showdown between the Volunteers and the military last year August.
To make his point, he went into his archives, to find the 1850's Convention on the Boundaries of British Honduras, as it was then called. Here's Shoman's explanation of the significance of this treaty which modern-day Guatemala is ignoring:
Assad Shoman, Former Foreign Affairs Minister
"As you can see from the map on your screen, its reads Map of Part of the Boundary between British Honduras and Guatemala, as define on the convention on the 30th April, 1859 and surveyed by the commissioners appointed under the said convention between the 4th December, 1860 and the 21st April, 1861."
"Then it has a note where it shows "the latitude and longitude of the Gracias Adios border mark and of the Garbutt's Falls border mark. There was no border mark put at the Sarstoon. But it says here on the map, the boundary line is shown by a red line dotted where not surveyed.""
"Now, that statement is saying that as the map shows a red line, that is where the boundary is and there is a certificate "We certify that the boundary lines shown on this map are correct." That is signed by the British boundary commissioner and that it is signed by the Guatemalan boundary commissioner. The British commissioner puts "Belize, 13th May, 1961" and signed. The Guatemalan commissioner puts "Belice, 13th May, 1861" and signed."
"On your screen a close up of the Sarstoon path of the river to see where that red line is. At the bottom going into the Sarstoon river there is a red line and you can see very clearly. I hope you are zooming it enough for everyone to see. It says the River Sarstoon and the red line you can see goes under the island very clearly. So that this was agreed by the Guatemalan government and the British government. It is attached in the archives of Great Britain to the treaty and it is certified as true and correct by both Guatemalan and British commissioners. So, doubt, there is not. It's very clear and I think we need to be very firmed with Guatemala."
"The government of Guatemala has to come to its senses and know that that is the boundary. The territory lies where it lies. To the north of that line is Belizean territory including the island and to the south is Guatemalan and we should not allow them to get away with any action or word that says otherwise without the strongest protest and without alerting the international community, the United Nations, the Security Council that our sovereignty and territorial integrity is being threatened by the army of the Guatemalan government, by the state of Guatemala and that this cannot be tolerated. We have to take a very firmed position on that and we have to get them to agree to have confidence building measures along that border."
We'll tell you about that BTV Trip down Sarstoon, if the advocates decide to go despite the Government's warning.
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