MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS SAYS RELOCATION OF SETTLERS AT SANTA ROSA HAS COMMENCED

January 04, 2008

Minister of Foreign Affairs Lisa Shoman confirmed to Love News that some of the settlers at Santa Rosa were relocated today. Last year Minister Shoman had indicated that the relocation process would have been completed by year’s end. We asked Minister Shoman why things did not go according to plans.

Lisa Shoman,Minister of Foreign Affairs:

“The entire process has been managed and coordinated by the OAS. In October when I gave the assurance that the families would be relocated by the end of the year, that was acting on an assurance and had been given to us by the OAS, and at the time they were reasonably comfortable at the fact that they would be able to do so in early December and late November. I can now confirm to you that the relocation of settlers in Santa Rosa has commenced today and the first eight families are in the process of being relocated to the new settlement some 24 miles west of the Belize Guatemala border in Guatemala and we do again have a commitment from the OAS that the remaining eight or nine families will be relocated as soon as possible. The OAS has had to face some incredible challenges and difficulties having to do mainly with the rains and the impassable nature of some of the rules that they have to go through with the families. I can confirm as well that the eight families having moved, the structures that they were living in has also been dismantled. The expectation is that the remaining settlers in Santa Rosa will be removed as soon as possible. Obviously at this point the OAS cannot give us a very firm date and so as to avoid any speculation like we had the last time, for the moment I will say that I am satisfied as minister of foreign affairs that they are moving with all due dispatch and that they have every intention of completing the relocation of the settlers from Santa Rosa to Guatemala, as soon as that can accomplished, and in the shortest possible time.”

Minister Shoman said Belize will remain vigilant to ensure that the situation does not re-occur.

Lisa Shoman,Minister of Foreign Affairs:

“I think the OAS has done a good job of being able to acquire land, construct the houses, put in access roads and electricity etc and to assure the Belizean public that once these people have been moved, once these structures are dismantled, no one will be allowed to resettle in the area and we will be extremely vigilant of our task. Part of our task is to remain on top of this situation and we will continue to rely on the support and the reporting of the BDF and the forestry department to continue to monitor the situation in the area and ensure that we don’t have this situation being repeated.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lisa Shoman.

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