EU freezes funds over referendum delay

“At the last report we got, there is only money at the OAS to continue the office’s operations for the next two months.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington told journalists at the Organization of American States’ (OAS) General Assembly in Antigua, Guatemala this week that the OAS office at the Belize-Guatemala border is running out of funds – and those funds could dry up in as little as two months – around August 2013.

The developments take place against the backdrop of a decision to postpone the simultaneous referenda which Belize and Guatemala had agreed to hold on October 6, 2013, so that voters could decide whether to take the territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). However, Guatemala insisted on a deferral, saying that the conditions do not exist for a successful vote.

Guatemala Foreign Affairs Minister Fernando Carrera told journalists speaking with him on the sidelines of the same OAS event that they can’t give a deadline by which the referendum would happen but they are trying to take steps to have the referendum as soon as possible.

Under the special agreement both countries signed back in 2008, the voting in both countries should occur on the same day. The parties recently agreed to push the date back to 2014.

The delay, according to Elrington, has caused donors to hold back funds they had committed under the OAS facilitation process.

Elrington said that a major financier is the EU, and their decision to provide funds to the parties was based on the specific undertakings given under the special agreement. When the conditions change, they withdraw their funds, he said.

Elrington said that “…in relation to the funding which they had provided for the education campaign and to assist us in the matter, they had given us 2 million Euros which came up to about 2.5 million US dollars, that was provided to the OAS to help fund the education campaign in Belize and Guatemala; but as soon as it was announced that in fact the referendum was going to be postponed they gave instructions to freeze those funds.”

He said that those funds cannot be touched now.

“They are very formal in arriving at decisions to provide assistance and once they arrive at a formula for assisting you that is based on [a] specific undertaking, when that situation changes, they automatically freeze their funds,” Elrington explained.

He said that to get those funds unfrozen will take a whole process under their system.

Also, said Elrington, the continued financing of the OAS office at the Belize-Guatemala border is predicated on the intent to go immediately to a referendum. They don’t intend to continue financing the office indefinitely, he added.

The minister said, “At the last report we got, there is only money at the OAS to continue the office’s operations for the next two months.”

Canada and the British will be approached to see if additional funds could be provided.

Elrington said that the office is of benefit in cases of conflict between Belize and Guatemala where there is need for verification exercises at the border.

They have no obligation to be there; they will only be there if donors continue to fund the office, he said. “That is why Belize has to signal it is serious on the matter,” he added.

Meanwhile, Carrera said that the parties are looking at maintaining the Confidence Building Measures, as well as putting in place initiatives for environmental protection in the border area.

(Amandala thanks KREM’s Marisol Amaya for providing inside reports from the OAS GA.)