BELMOPAN, Belize (CMC) — Belize Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington says Guatemala is claiming ownership to the entire Caribbean Community (Caricom) country and welcomed the investigation to be conducted by the Organisation of American States (OAS) into the recent killings in the Sarstoon area.

Appearing on a television programme here on Wednesday night, Elrington said that as far back as 1939, the Guatemalans had written to the British indicating their intention to repudiate the 1859 treaty regarding the border issue.

“The truth is that if you can successfully repudiate the treaty then it means that the treaty comes to an end and the property would revert back to the Guatemalans. But the contention of the British is that the property was never Guatemala’s, and their assertion that they were repudiating the 1859 Treaty was not a valid legal position.

“So the British never took the view that any part of Belize became the territory of Guatemala, and they have maintained that up to this day. That is the view that we maintain. Guatemalans are claiming though that in fact they now own the whole territory.”

Elrington told New 5 television that is the effect of repudiating the contract and as a result “there can be no separate regime in relation to the Sarstoon because the whole country – if the convention falls, then the whole country becomes the subject of the dispute”.

He said there is no separation between the rest of Belize and the Sarstoon.

“So they would technically claim the whole country and so it is not correct to say that they are annexing the Sarstoon. What is the proper situation is to say that they are stopping people from using the Sarstoon because really and truly they are claiming the whole territory as theirs,” he emphasised.

The OAS has said it would investigate the death of a Guatemalan minor and Elrington said the hemispheric body will also be probing the murder of Danny Conorquie and the shooting of Belize Defence Force Staff Sergeant Richard Lambey.

“The fact that people are coming across from Guatemala to Belize is widely known. That is not anything that anybody doesn’t know. And people know that is one of the reasons why we are having problems, because we have made it an issue on so many occasions,” said Elrington.

He said that he had spoken about the issue at the United Nations on more than one occasion and at other forums.

“But you have to appreciate that the entire issue of migrants is a huge issue internationally, whether it is in Europe, whether it is in Africa, whether it is migrants coming from Central America going to the United States, so the world knows that you have these problems with people who are economic migrants or whoever it is coming across, and this gives rise to incidents,”

He said the international community is fully apprised of the situation, “so one does not have to repeat all these things”.

“People knew that in fact the people were hunting in our country in the night and one got killed and the other two got shot. That is well known. That is being looked into. We are going to have the OAS do an independent investigation. Our civil authorities have an obligation to do an investigation as well. It is being looked into. So we don’t have to remind the international community of that. They are fully aware of it,” he added.