Latest update April 4th, 2025 6:13 AM
Piracy on the Corentyne River a worrying situation – Region 6 Chairman
Region Six Chairman, David Armogan, has expressed concern over the piracy situation along the Corentyne River. He sees it as “a worrying situation.”
He said that the ‘B’ Division Police had explained why they do not go too in depth in their investigative measures to find and bring the perpetrators of hijackings to justice.
David Permaul
So as it appears, he noted, the Surinamese police are the ones who are tasked with getting to the bottom of these crimes.
More recently, the bodies of two fishermen, who were tortured and tossed overboard by pirates in Suriname waters on June 12, 2013, were recovered two days later and buried immediately because they were in an advanced stage of decomposition.
Dead were the captain of the hijacked boat, Nazim ‘Fineman’ Shakim, 28, of Lot 17 ‘A’ Belvedere, Corentyne and “Counsellor” (only name given) of Annandale, East Coast Demerara.
Armogan believes that what has to happen is that Guyana has to work closer with the Surinamese authorities. “Our police force here has to work closer, so we too can have some amount of presence on the river, rather than depend solely on Suriname’s armed forces to patrol the river.”
He noted, too, that there was talk to equip the fishermen with radios, “but unfortunately that idea has not come to fruition as yet and I hope that something can be done very quickly….”
Another idea that was touted, he explained, was to issue firearms to fishermen to take with them when they go out to sea. He stated that the idea is still being negotiated with the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and Ministry of Home Affairs as well as the Number 66 Fishermen’s Co-op Society.
“I don’t know if that will solve the problem because we have also seen that where people have guns, the criminals take them away from the people and so get more arms…But if it is one thing that can help the fishermen…we need to fast track and look at it very quickly.”
He is calling for a “speedier intervention to resolve the problems that these people are facing.”
Armogan noted the piracy continuing unabated in Corentyne River “and it’s a very worrying situation and it is having a very serious impact on the fishing industry in that a lot of them are afraid to go out with their boats especially at nights to do fishing and if this situation is not brought to some amount of control, I think the fishing industry in this region will suffer some blows.
He noted that the government has a duty to protect the people, but that there is a major problem. Guyanese fishermen are operating in Suriname waters. “A lot of licences that they acquire to do fishing are from the Surinamese authorities, so a lot of these crimes are happening on those Suriname waters.” He stated that it is a difficult situation to control. “When we want to investigate our law does not permit it—because it is out of the jurisdiction. The crime is often committed in the vicinity of the Surinamese jurisdiction.”
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