Yesterday via teleconference, the Maya Leaders Alliance and the Maya Communities named as claimants in the Maya Land Rights case went back before the judges of the Caribbean Court of Justice. They were there along with the legal representative of the Government to give an update to the court on how far along the Government is in implementing a system which officially recognizes and protects communal land rights.
The Land Rights Commission, set up by the Government of Belize, has only just started preliminary consultations with the 39 Maya communities, and they're a months away from arriving at a suitable system. So, the Government attorney communicated that to the CCJ, and when they were given their opportunity to address the CCJ judges, the Maya Leaders made sure to mention their grievances with the Government related to the Jalacte and Santa Cruz. As viewers are aware, the Maya from Jalacte have complained that the Government ejected Maya farmers to widen the Jalacte Road and to set up the Agricultural Ministry's Outreach Station. Of course, the Santa Cruz villagers remain upset about the fact that Rupert Myles squatted on the research for the UxBenka Maya Site. After the hearing, we spoke with MLA representative Cristina Coc about the issues raised:
Christina Coc - Mayan Leaders Alliance
"We had a hearing before the Caribbean Court of Justice by way of teleconference. It is with respect to the reports that have been submitted by both parties the government and the Maya people. We each submitted reports and the Caribbean Court of Justices wanted to seek clarification and seek further under takings with respect to those reports. On the part of the Maya people we raised issue with the ongoing violation even though we have a Caribbean Court of Justice order which affirms our rights for our lands and resources we continue to have numerous violations on our lands such as lodging, land sales and even the government taking away lands from subsistent farmers in villages like Jalacte and in the case of Santa Cruz the trespass case. And so the CCJ basically raised issue with the council for the government and said what do you have in place to remedy that? What will you consider to do with respect to those ongoing violations and providing redress for them. Short of coming to court because the CCJ raised the fact that coming to court is very costly not just for the indigenous people not just for the Maya people but for the government of Belize. They sought the consideration of the government to consider setting up a body that would have the capacity and be equipped to provide redress and to solve some of these issues given the fact that the commission continues to say that they are not set up with the capacity to resolve some of these issues."
Also, the Maya Leaders Alliance are complaining that the Maya Land Rights Commission has depleted the entire 300,000 dollars ordered by the CCJ to be set as reparations to implement the consent order. Coc told us why the Maya are not pleased about how the money has been used:
Christina Coc - Mayan Leaders Alliance
"We raised the issue of the 300 thousand dollar fund that was set aside for reparation for the Maya people as a first step to implement the CCJ order. The Caribbean Court of Justice sought the consideration of the government again saying to them you know we need to understand what has happened, what is the commitment of the government. We realise it would take a lot money to implement, what is the government doing? Is it seeking international support? Has it reached out to the United Nations? Who would be willing to help government implement rulings that are favourable to indigenous people? They could not answer whether or not they've done any of that. In fact they only say they have expended an exhausted 300 thousand dollars already that was set aside as a first step and the only thing they accounted for was rental for their office space, for furniture that was bought and for paying staff. While at the same time Maya people continue to raise issue with that because our understanding was that it would support our participation and involvement in these consultations with the commission; when in fact it has not. Every time our people have come to meetings we've asked for reimbursement of bus fares which fairly cheap and the government and the commission has said we don't have the money to give you. At the same time when it meets with NGOs and other stakeholders it offers not only bus compensation but compensation for their time. And so this is contrary to what you would consider good faith consultations. In addition to that the CCJ justices raised the concern of whether or not the Maya people were consulted when the commission was constituted and when it was set up; whether or not their inputs were sought with respect to having representation, joint representation on the commission. And I know you all have asked us that question as well in the past."
We spoke with Commission Chairman Lisel Alamilla tonight via phone, and she told us that the Commission stands behind the use of the 300 thousand dollars because the money was used in the implementation process of the order.
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