Confrontation looms between Guyana, Suriname

Oct 16, 2008 News

“When Suriname used force to evict the CGX rig we did not respond in kind at that time and sought the route of international law and we were vindicated in the outcome…That doesn’t say that our response will be the same all the time…We are prepared to take all steps necessary.”

This is according to Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday during a press briefing at State House who was adamant that Guyana will not take any option off of the ‘table’ as it relates to the most recent actions by the Surinamese Coastguard in the Corentyne wherein the foreign military force seized a Guyanese registered vessel ‘Lady Chandra 1’ and detained it in Nickerie.

The owner of the vessel is being asked to pay a fine and the crew is being detained as illegally being in that country.

“How could you be illegal in that country if you (Surinamese Coastguard) took them there,” said Jagdeo

Also yesterday the Alliance for Change and the People’s National Congress Reform held press briefings where they indicated that they would support the administration in its struggle to ensure Guyana’s territorial integrity.

AFC leader, Raphael Trotman, said that any well-advised position by the President will be supported by his party given what was at stake.

PNCR executive member Aubrey Norton, in pledging his party’s support for the Government’s position against Suriname, said that Guyana should in future adopt a more aggressive position, given that this was not the first such confrontation with Suriname.

President Jagdeo in his briefing yesterday at State House said that Guyana has dispatched a strongly worded ‘Note Verbale’ to the Surinamese.

A letter was also dispatched to Secretary General of the Caribbean Community, Edwin Carrington, and Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, pointing to the use of force by Suriname.

A copy of those documents signed by Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Burkett stated that the matter has serious implications for the peace and security of Guyana.

This, the Minister noted, was in light of the several provocative actions undertaken by the military and paramilitary forces of the Republic of Suriname on the Corentyne River, which forms the boundary with Suriname.

According to the document, the use of force by Suriname is in spite of formal protests to the Republic of Suriname about the harassment of Guyanese and other vessels plying the Corentyne River to conduct legitimate activities on wharves on Guyana’s shores.

On Tuesday, the Surinamese coastguard intercepted, boarded, seized and transported to a Surinamese port, Lady Chandra I, which was on its way to the Springlands wharf in Guyana to uplift and transport a shipment of bulk sugar for export.

Minister Rodrigues-Birkett’s letter to the two dignitaries added, “Government views this action by the Surinamese Government in using its naval forces to seize the ‘Lady Chandra I’ as a use of force.”

On June 3, 2000, Suriname used its naval forces to evict CGX oil rig from waters that have since been ruled part of Guyana’s territorial waters. This issue was settled at the level of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which ruled on September 17, last year. The actions of Suriname on that occasion “…constituted a threat of the use of force in contravention of the Convention, the UN Charter and general international law.”

Guyana’s contention, according to the document and reiterated by Jagdeo during yesterday’s press briefing, has always been that both States have equal rights to the Corentyne.

“Suriname has claimed the river as wholly Suriname’s, but has since the issuance of the Arbitral Award on September 17, 2007, sought to unilaterally impose its ambitions…The efforts to impose Surinamese law and administrative regulations on the use of the river is without merit and contrary to international customary law in relation to boundary rivers that divide two States.”

According to President Jagdeo, when a country shares a river border, then both countries should have equal user rights of the river. “In this case, Suriname is trying to impose sovereignty unilaterally over the river.”

Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, told this newspaper that while the detention of the vessel will cause a minor delay, GuySuCo has already begun putting arrangements in place to have its sugar shipped from Skeldon.

The Guyana National Shipping Company ship was contracted by GuySuCo, and according to the Minister, GuySuCo has advised him that this is the first time they have been faced with a situation where one of its contracted vessels has been intercepted.