National Kriol Council Calls for Proper Protocol Implementation in Land Dispute

The National Kriol Council has voiced major concerns with the ongoing dispute between the villages of Yemeri Grove and Laguna in the Toledo district. The NKC issued a statement today saying that one of the major problems with land in the south is that the Government of Belize has not implemented the proper protocols issued in the 2015 consent order issued by the Caribbean Court of Justice. NKC Vice President, Michael Kemp, spoke with Love News this evening, calling for the government to implement those protocols. He also stressed that the council is not calling for the removal of Greg Choc from his position as Commissioner of Indigenous People’s Affairs, but wants him to recuse himself from dealing with this particular issues. 

Michael Kemp, Vice President, National Kriol Council: “We believe that the consent order that was given in 2015 that there should, the protocols need to be in place. You know, our people are people who live in harmony and we don’t want because things are not in place, that harmony to be affected. And so we are asking the government to please, we’re urging them,  to do the right thing and set the protocols in place that need to be established with the consent order. We are asking the government to kindly ask Mr. Chuc to recuse himself from dealing with this matter because we don’t feel as a council having listened to Mr. Usher and having looked at all the things said before us that Mr. Chuc can be impartial. So we’re not asking the government to remove him as as his post in the Ministry of Indigenous and People’s Affairs. But we’re saying that for this particular case, we’re asking that the government, and we’re asking him, Greg Chuc, to kindly recuse yourself from this issue. The council, some members of the executive, will be going to Yemeri Grove this weekend to get our feet on the ground and really ascertain much of what we discussed in our meeting last night. And more than that, we want to emphasize that we want harmony and we want peace. Our people are people not looking to get into a fight or a quarrel with anybody, but we are looking to ensure that what we have as a Kriol village remains intact and that we respect the court’s decision that a consent order needs to be established. The government has a responsibility to set these protocols in place and it’s for the benefit of all of us who live in this part of the country and in general, when the lies are kept and we can avoid having these type of skirmishes.”