They brought their message to Belize City three weeks ago in a dramatic public protest and press conference and today representatives of the villages of Conejo and Santa Cruz had their first day in court. As we've reported, those communities have engaged local and international human rights attorneys to argue that their constitutional right to security of land tenure has been violated. Only a small contingent from those villages made the trip to Belize City today for a pretrial hearing in the Chief Justice's courtroom. It was over in half an hour, but Christina Coc of the Julian Cho Society says it was worth it.
Christina Coc, Julian Cho Society
"This is the first time in history that Mayan people traveled so far to come to, just being in the Chief Justice's court is incredible and I think that having them sit up front and engage in what's happening, there's no doubt that these claimants will continue to make the sacrifice and continue to travel from down south to be here.
We are committed, we want to see our request heard and we want to ensure that we're here and we're understanding everything that's going on. One of the things that didn't come clear today was whether or not a translator would be provided partly because a lot of claimants have as their first language Ketchi or Mopan. We are making that request because we want to ensure that the claimants that are bringing the case forward actually understand the proceedings of the court and can therefore make their own sort of judgement on how the case is going."
Greg Choq,
"We have put our confidence and the certainty of our future in the hands of the court and I am hoping that we will emerge victorious."
Antonette Moore represented the Mayan communities and Nicola Cho represented the government of Belize. Pre-trial submissions will be made next month and the hearings have been scheduled for June 18 to the 23rd.
