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REPORT ON THE FUND FOR PEACE: PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF TERRITORIAL DISPUTES

The Assistant Secretary General of the OAS, Ambassador Luigi R. Einaudi, today presented the Annual Report of the Fund for Peace: Peaceful Settlement of Territorial Disputes to the Permanent Council of the Organization.

The report outlines the activities of the General Secretariat in support of the peaceful resolution of the differendum between Belize and Guatemala and the work of the Secretariat to support the demarcation of certain sectors of the border between Hondurans and El Salvador. Ambassador Einaudi announced that the Secretariat would also support a new initiative by the Vice-Presidents of Honduras and Nicaragua to execute a bi-national border development project in the western part of the border between those two countries.

Ambassador Einaudi thanked those Member and Observer States who contributed to the Fund in 2003, specifically, Brazil ($25,000), Canada ($26,000), The Holy See ($5,000), Honduras ($6,000), Korea ($20,000), Mexico ($10,000), Nicaragua ($5,000), Spain ($155,828), Sweden ($114,500), and The United Kingdom ($236,000); and noted that these contributions exceeded $600,000. He also thanked the Permanent Council for allocating $1 million to the Fund out of the arrears paid by the United States in late 2002.

Recalling the Special Conference on Security, held in Mexico City in October 2003, the Permanent Representative of Mexico stated that the Fund for Peace “is a key component of the Inter-American security system which provides a vehicle for negotiating solutions to those situations which require the resources of the fund, thus contributing to regional stability”.

“el Fondo de Paz es una pieza importante del andamiaje de seguridad del sistema interamericano, cuya utilización nos permite encausar la solución negociada de aquellas situaciones que requieren el empleo de los recursos del Fondo, en aras de la estabilidad regional”

The Permanent Representatives of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil all expressed their firm support for the conflict resolution activities of the Fund for Peace, and congratulated the Assistant Secretary General for his stewardship of the Fund. Mexico and Nicaragua pledged additional financial contributions.

In his concluding remarks, the Assistant Secretary General suggested to the Permanent Council that the principle upon which the Fund for Peace is based, namely that joint requests from sovereign member states for resolving problems affecting their peace or security deserve the full support of the OAS, has proven so effective that Member States might wish to consider broadening the potential application of the Fund to other hemispheric problems.

Reference: E-040/04