He's been promising to engage them in a dialogue and today Deputy Prime Minister John Briceno made an appointment to meet with the Chairman of SATIIM Greg Choq. But he didn't get quite what he expected. Choq came from the deep south with two buses full of villagers from the communities that will be affected by seismic testing which will be conducted in the Sarstoon Temash National Park.
The Mayans arrived at the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the police special forces were put on alert when Choq tried to enter the meeting with his entire executive. He was told that only he could enter, and he met, he says, cordially with the Deputy Prime Minister. But that meeting was over in a hurry and Choq and his villagers rushed to the city where they held a press conference to announced that they have initiated legal action against government, and make it clear that they have had enough of systematic exploitation by a system that sees indigenous people as fit to be overlooked.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Close to 100 villagers from the villages of Barranco, Conejo, Midway, Sundaywood, Crique Carco left their homes in the south just after dawn this morning, arriving in Belize after 4:30 pm at the Radisson Hotel for the press conference.
Greg Choq, SATIIM
"We have come far with a lot sacrifice to be here today. We have come to speak to the good hearts and minds of our Belizean people. Today we have come here because our government has abandoned its fiduciary responsibility and turn its back against us."
And now because of that, today, attorneys for SATIIM, Dean Barrow, Lois Young and Antonette Moore filed action against the government of Belize.
Greg Choq,
"SATIIM has filed a suit against of Belize for violating the National Parks Act, the Environmental Protection Act, breach of the co-management agreement, governing the park, and the violation of Belize's international legal obligations Ramsar Convention for the protection of wetlands. We have seen in Belize that the law is a flexible tool that government uses as they please. For the past years the government of Belize has use the law to exclude the desperately poor Maya and Garifuna people from accessing natural resources in the Sastoon-Temash National Park. Still they are denied the right to hunt, to fish, or cut logs for their home. But when it comes to a wealthy foreign corporation, the government says they…can set off dynamites, extract oil, and they don't even have to prepare an environmental impact assessment or a monitoring or damage mitigation plan. This selected application of the law is a violation of the fundamental human rights of the indigenous people in Belize.
The law is indeed a double edge sword. It can be used by the people to defend their rights against greedy men who think they are above it. The sworn affidavit handed over to the Supreme Court today charge that the Minister of Environment violated the law of the land when he issued a permit for U.S. Capital to conduct seismic testing in the Sarstoon-Temash National Park."
Barrow says he is confident that they have a case because there have been such clear violations.
Dean Barrow, Attorney for SATIIM
"No EIA has in fact been conducted and so primarily because of the violation of the National Parks Act but also because of the violation of the Environmental Protection Act, and the violation of Belize's treaty obligations under Ramsar. The legal team feels certain that this permit in fact is made without proper jurisdiction, made without proper authority, and in fact is in violation of these several bits of legislation and treaty obligations which we've signed."
Choq says that is symptomatic of a deeper problem where the community's interests are sacrificed on the altar of profit-makers.
Greg Choq,
"The interest of the Belizean people is never ever factored into the equation of these mega-projects. It is always the profit of the transnational corporation that is of utmost importance. Countries around the world, Nigeria for example, they are producing a lot of oil but if you look at the condition the Nigerian people are living in, you would wonder where the wealth, where the money from the oil is going, and we cannot say it cannot happen here.
Personally I think it is another milking cow. DFC is an example. The SSB money is another example. Have we had a say in how these monies have been used, utilized for this country? At what point do we as Belizeans say that has to stop. And I think what we have done today, as poor as we are, as marginalized as we are, we have taken the gut and put our book in the supreme court to ensure that even those who create law, abide by the law."
Barrow expects that they will get leave to apply for judicial review which would have the effect of stalling the permit given to U.S. Capital Energy to begin seismic testing. Even though they co-manage the park, Choq says they can't get a copy of the permit. The testing will occur across block 19, which is 500,000 acres and a portion of that falls in the 41,000 acre National Park.
