Caribbean Rights writes CARICOM, UN on border disputes Guyana Chronicle March 22, 2000 THE Caribbean human rights network (Caribbean Rights) is asking hemispheric and international human rights bodies and agencies to use their influence to avoid threatened conflicts in regional territorial disputes. In a statement yesterday, the Barbados-based network said its concern over the potential for damage to orderly social and economic development in the Caribbean-Latin American region, has been expressed in a letter to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary General, Mr Edwin Carrington, from its Executive Secretary, Mr Dennis Daly. The letter has pointed to the latest renewal of territorial claim to Belize by Guatemala and the ongoing border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela. It welcomes "the principled statement of unequivocal support" by CARICOM for Belize while, at the same time, urging both Guatemala and Belize to peacefully resolve a colonially-inherited problem. (Successive governments in Guatemala have perpetuated a claim to more than half of Belize, while Venezuela has been claiming almost two thirds of Guyana's territory). "It is our network's hope", Daly told the CARICOM Secretary General, "that with a cooling of the tension that erupted by the recent detention of Belizean security personnel by the Guatemalan military, both sides will now earnestly get ahead with their tentative efforts to peacefully settle their territorial differences in accordance with internationally established principles and practices." The network's letter, copied also to the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Organisation of American States, stressed the importance of governments and civic organisations in the region showing an active interest in ensuring that territorial disputes between neighbours in this hemisphere are resolved peacefully and confirm with internationally recognised norms and practices.