As you heard, some of the teachers called Elrington out for being too passive on controversial issues surrounding the Belize Guatemala territorial dispute.
Aware that he might be criticized for that, Elrington started his presentation with an explanation that he is only following the strict guidelines set out by Foreign Ministers before him.
Elrington today revealed that there is a special section of the Confidence Building Measures which mandates that all Foreign Ministers are expected to dial it way back while publicly discussing any matters related to the Guatemalan claim. Here's how he made his case to a roomful of skeptical teachers:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"Before Assad Shoman ceased to be head of the delegation and head of the negotiating team, he caused the confidence building measures to be agreed upon and I will read to you what he put in train and which I am constrain to follow. You will find that sometimes members of my government speak differently about issues. For example, in the Conorquie issue there were members in my government, head of the police and other, even ministers were saying 'I am certain that it is the Guatemalans that killed Conorquie'. My position was if you bring me the evidence I will say that."
"It's not long, I will read it briefly for you so that you could understand better why is it that I behave the way I do. It says here and it is free, we have copies to give you. It says "to reinforce the agreement and confidence building measures between Belize and Guatemala and to facilitate the negotiation process concerning the territorial differendum, the party reiterate the prior agreement to exercise caution and restraint in the treatment of all issues related to this negotiation process. To this end the party shall frain all public statements relating to the territorial differendum in a manner that is consistent with the obligation to timely and fully informed their respective public opinions concern the progress of negotiations. The parties agree to apply the following guidelines for public statements in this regard." and this is the one that is most important: "The parties agree to apply the following guidelines for public statements in this regard. 1) the party shall specifically recognized that not only incidents on the ground, but statements in the media or elsewhere can also be disruptive of confidence between the parties and inimical to the process of conflict resolution." So even what we say in the media can bring harm to a nation."
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