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Attack on fishermen in Suriname looks like retaliation between fishermen
Worried fishermen in meeting with Suriname authorities this week.
By Ivan Cairo in Suriname
PARAMARIBO – Authorities in Suriname confirmed that a corpse was discovered yesterday on a mud bank offshore, presumably one of the victims of the attack last Friday on four fishing boats in Surinamese waters near the maritime border with French-Guiana.
The corpse was discovered by pilots of a private airline that had undertaken a search on its own initiative. The Coast Guard was directed to the area to recover the body.
“It is almost certain that it is one of the missing because the body was discovered near the place where the boats were attacked,” said Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Slijngard, Director of the National Coordination Centre for Disaster Management (NCCR) on local radio. Meanwhile, information circulated late afternoon Wednesday that two more bodies were discovered.
According to several sources, the armed raid on the four fishing vessels last Friday, that left 16 men missing, is the result of an old feud, a turf war, between Guyanese fishermen. Numerous individuals in the fisheries sector are aware of it, but fishermen are reluctant to speak about this in public. This incident has to do with “rights” that fishermen claim on certain areas of the fishing grounds.
On 28 February, Captain Mark Skeete became the first fatality of the dispute, according to insiders. He was shot and killed point blank by attackers. The four crew members of Skeete’s boat were also physically attacked. Eventually, they were taken to the shoreline where they were rescued by another fishing boat several days later.
Various sources indicate to local journalists that associates of Skeete vowed to retaliate in revenge. And a prize was placed on the head of the individuals who allegedly had ordered his killing.
In early April, the police reported a ‘drive by shooting’ took place on 30th March, in which the 40-year-old businessman Somnath Manohar was killed. He was gunned down while sitting in front of his home with friends and family in the Munder residential area in Paramaribo.
An employee who was also hit survived. Afterward, it became clear that Manohar was a fisherman and according to insiders, he would be the brain behind the murder of Skeete, along with the killing of another man who was murdered in Guyana.
The suspects in the drive-by shooting escaped and the investigation into this killing is ongoing. Authorities believe that the perpetrators have fled to Guyana.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Slijngard, the attacks on Friday have all the marks of a contract killing. He noticed that the attackers didn’t come to rob the fishermen of their catch or other valuables.
“If you just came to steal why would you tie a victim’s hands behind his back, tie a battery to his legs and throw him overboard?”, he argued. The authorities now have certain information that is being pursued to find out exactly what has happened and to prevent further attacks.
So far, there is credible intelligence he said that a gang led by two Guyanese brothers is responsible for the recent attacks on fishermen in Surinamese waters. The NCCR-official said that one of the suspects is based in Guyana while the other one is residing in Suriname.
Slijngard further noticed that international cooperation, especially with Guyana mainly in the field of sharing intelligence, is vital to bring the criminals to justice.
In the meantime, for fear of the lives of their employees, the boat owners are keeping their vessels ashore. Since Monday, the price of fish on the local market has risen sharply and it is feared that scarcity will occur within a short period of time if they don’t venture out to sea.
In a meeting with representatives of the government, the Fishermen Collective Association called for measures by the Surinamese Government to guarantee safety at sea.
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