When he delivered his judgment this morning – the Chief Justice said that he had been greatly influenced by the 2004 decision of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights. Ironically, that petition was filed with the commission in august of 1998 by leading PUP attorneys – as the Mayas – encouraged by the PUP - were at that time advancing a case against UDP granted logging concessions to Malaysian companies. But when the judgement came down in October of 2004 – the PUP government had to reap a bitter harvest.
The judgement upheld the Mayas customary land rights and said the government was ignoring them. Predictably, government did nothing, and the judgement was put to one side. But it was activated and relied upon by the Chief Justice and to give you an idea of why we look back to October of 2004 when Jules Vasquez first looked at the judgement and the wider issue of Maya land rights. With respect to Dr. Leroy Teager the story is called the land is the bank – who holds the keys?
Frederico Sam, Midway Village
"Maya people we are the Indian people we have to find land! Every each single one have to find a piece of land."
That point was made emphatically at yesterday's press conference - the entitlement to a piece of land, communal lands for this people whose arrival on this soil predates European conquest and sovereignty. According to this report, systematic misuse and misappropriation of Maya communal land by the government of Belize is a violation of human rights:
Greg Choq, Maya Leader's Alliance,
"What we have been made to accept as normal attributes of democracy in Belize are in fact serious breaches of our internationally recognized human rights"
And according to IACH those human rights mean that government must recognize the communal property of the Maya - that is, lands they have traditionally occupied and used; and put into law legislative and administrative measures to demarcate Mayan communal territory. Sounds like a homeland to us, and it's an idea prime minister said Musa says is aberrant:
Prime Minister Said Musa, December 2003,
"The important thing is I will not preside over the balkanization of Belize! A homeland just for Garifuna just for Creole, all of Belize belongs to all of us. That's the first principle."
It maybe a first principle for the Prime Minister but it was a faraway thought. At yesterday's press conference, when Choc marched out community leaders citing abuses of those Mayan communal lands. According to this report those abuses are more than just the usual government shadiness and high handedness - it's the systematic exploitation of human rights:
Rafael Cal, Chairman - Medina Bank,
"The people is staying poorer and poorer the break is given always to the foreign investors which come with all those big money that's why break is not given to the local people."
Juan Ack, Chairman - Alcalde's Association,
"In those remote villages - people go and apply for land without consent of alcalde - we do not have the right to recommend."
Justino Peck, Chairman - Cacoa Grower's Association,
"This industry has been affected by what the Government of Belize has been doing without consultation of the community they're doing surveying of lands. You become to be an old man and you never get you land but what I see people most of them are foreigners get many thousand acres of land and they are not ready to get it."
Frederico Sam, Midway Village,
"Most of the people here in town they grab our village - they grab 100 acres of land and they never work in the bush before. Hundreds of acres they get there in midway them cayetano's 400 acres for 4 men. And all we get is 30 acres for each."
Toledo villager,
"Later on it will be causing a war and I'm serious."
It's serious indeed - but not just for the Mayas, for all Belizeans. The government argues that land ownership problems that reach across all parts of Belize. And poverty? Well the Mayas don't have the market on that cornered either: that stretches from Otosha all the way to Port Loyola. And that sense of inequal opportunity - that when it comes to land in Toledo - some are more equal than others is what galls those non-Mayas born and grown in Toledo:
Eva Middleton-Cayetano, Toledo resident (non-Mayan)
"Can a non boom creek persons apply for a lot in your community? I am in the same shoe like you and do not have a piece of land this is us living in Toledo."
Juan Ack, Chairman, Alcalde's Association
"The way I understand the way you understand as Garifuna members bout 3, 4, 5 years ago we hear about this homeland - you know how much the Garifuna is worrying about and that is what we should consider - remember when forum like this comes up we face to those problems. How can you come to live in Punta Gorda and I can't go live in Big Falls that is the first question - and as Mr. Choc seh there is nothing concrete yet - and I think we need to reconsider about this type of situation so that we don't hurt any races especially the born and grown Belizean. "
But Choc says it's about more than race; in fact he thinks that's a red herring set up as a divisive tool by the politicians. For him the real struggle is about land and power - those most precious assets which government protects as its eminent domain.
Greg Choc, Maya leader's alliance,
"There is nothing or no policy regarding who gets land and where they get land but I want to tell you something we have no control over that right now; it is the government who is deciding who gets land where they get that land whether you like it or not."
And so far it is that same government that will decide if whether it will adhere to the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights - and the Maya Leaders hope that with international pressure - they can bend what has so far been intransigent political will.
In 2004, that story was singled out as the best in the region on health and development issues.
