Belize and Guatemala have re-opened negotiations and this time Belizean diplomats are confident that they will end with a solution, even if it means going to an international court. Guatemala's Foreign Minister, Jorge Briz and Belize's Chief Negotiator Assad Shoman signed on to an agreement saying just that yesterday at the OAS Headquarters in Washington.
The new deal is called a "framework of negotiation and confidence building measures." If that term confidence building sounds a lot like the old deal, Shoman assures that it is not. This is a binding negotiation which will last until the dispute is settled. But that doesn't mean they will come up with a solution; in fact at a press conference today, Shoman assured the press that a negotiated settlement is most difficult to come by.
Assad Shoman, Chief Negotiator
"What we're doing now is instead setting up a negotiating process, which first of all is a lot more regular, in others words we'll be having meetings regularly. There were times, in the past, when months would pass and we wouldn't meet. Now there's a limit of 45 days, within 45 days we should have a meeting to discuss the territorial dispute and to carry forward. And we'll be accompanied by the Secretary General, or his nominee, and at any point, this is the important part of this agreement, that (if) the Secretary General, in his own discretion, feels that really we're not going to get anywhere because Guatemala is saying, 'I want this,' and Belize is saying, 'I will never get that,' and so on, he then has the authority, under the rules of this agreement, to say, 'look boys you are wasting my time and your time, and people's time and money, I mean we're never going to reach an agreement like this, let's go to the international juridical solution."
And Shoman says Belize is ready to face the international court, in fact, she must be.
Assad Shoman,
"By signing this agreement we are committing to go to court if a negotiated settlement does not evolve."
And Shoman, who has been dealing with the dispute for most of his adult life says a negotiated settlement will be very, very difficult to arrive at.
Jules Vasquez,
What is your gut intuition about this agreement?
Assad Shoman,
"Well I don't usually allow my gut to rule my mind but I can tell you what I think about it, I think that, and I've said this so I'm repeating myself, but I see it almost impossible for any Guatemalan government to sign an agreement, recognizing all the territory of Belize, as we know it, and surviving in the present Guatemalan climate, maybe a hundred years from now but not now. And the hope that we see in this agreement is that it recognizes that, and it leaves the door open for a body that is not either the government of Guatemala or the government of Belize, but outside of that, a body that we both have put our trust in, which is the Secretary General of the Organization of the American States simply to say to us, 'look I don't think you're going to reach an agreement so you better go to some court,' which would definitely be definitive because once a court rules, and you both agree to take it to the court, that's it, its final, its definitive which is what we need, we need finality to this dispute."
Finality that this veteran feels must come if Belize is to move on.
Assad Shoman,
"This question is what is the alternative. We don't believe that we can live forever with a claim hanging over our head from a much more powerful neighbor, powerful not only in economic and military terms, but in demographic terms as well. And therefore for us, it is important that we resolve this."
Diane Haylock, Member of Negotiating Team
"If I may put it this way, the end is perhaps more in sight for the first time."
And what of the Ramphal/Reichler proposals? Well those are history. Shoman confirmed that they have been shelved, and there is no assurance that the proposals will be re-visited. The first meeting in this new round of talks will take place at the end of October in Belize. Thereafter, meetings must be held regularly, within 45-day intervals.
