Open Letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs on State flag concession to ship carrying military supplies to Israel

Oct 09, 2024 Letters

---

Dear Mr. Hugh Hilton Todd,

Our organization Boycott, Divest Sanction Guyana, BDS writes regarding the vessel Kathrin IMO 9570620, which is carrying military supplies with final destination Israel based on credible information from Human Rights organisations and Trade Unions among others that carry out actions in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Kathrin is currently seeking a new flag. We warn that granting a flag to Kathrin implies serious violations of international obligations on the part of the granting State. We insist that, if Kathrin’s shipping company requests the flag of our State, it will be denied. On August 24, 2024, the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Republic of Namibia refused to grant a berth to the MV Kathrin, after discovering that the Kathrin vessel had a cargo of RDX explosives with an import license given to Israel Military Industries (IMI) Ltd. issued by the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry. The Namibian authorities acted in accordance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) and the preventive measures issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on January 26, 2024, in the case between South Africa and Israel. Also, the vessel Kathrin did not manage to dock in Angola and Montenegro revoked its permission to enter the port.

The MV Kathrin was flying the Portuguese flag issued by the MAR – International Maritime Register of Madeira. After months of pressure from the BDS movement, the MV Kathrin, a ship carrying 8 containers of deadly explosives for Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, has requested the removal of the Portuguese flag following investigations into the ship and its cargo by the Portuguese government.

It is important to note that all states have an obligation under international law based on jus cogens norms and specific conventions to prevent genocide and other crimes against humanity such as apartheid. On January 26, 2024, the ICJ issued a decision confirming the plausibility of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and ordered six provisional measures. None of these were complied with by Israel.

As the ICJ made clear in its ruling: “… all States parties to the Genocide Convention have a common interest in ensuring the prevention, suppression and punishment of genocide by undertaking to comply with the obligations contained in the Convention. This common interest implies that the obligations in question are owed by any State party to all other States parties to the relevant convention; they are obligations erga omnes partes, in the sense that each State party has an interest in fulfilling them in a given case” para. 33.

In this regard, it is important to note that: a) RDX is a key component in Israel’s aerial bombs and missiles that have massacred at least 41,000 people in Gaza according to local authorities b) Israel’s leading military company, Elbit Systems, of which IMI Ltd. is a subsidiary is a major consumer of RDX and industry experts warned that shortages of the necessary RDX ingredient in the global market would limit Israel’s mass production of military munitions.

Precisely in light of the obligations arising from the ICJ provisional ruling and the genocide convention, based on Article 94 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which establishes a crisp set of rights and duties for the flag state, namely: duty to inspect, detain and regulate ships flying its flag to ensure compliance with national and international rules, to ensure that its ships comply with international conventions and duty to exercise effective control over its ships to prevent ships from engaging in unlawful acts. Given the international obligations that your State assumed with the ratification of the aforementioned conventions and international jus cogens.

Recalling the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/ES-10/L.31 of 13 September which calls upon all States to “take measures to end […] the supply or transfer of arms, ammunition and related equipment to Israel, the occupying Power, in all cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

We request that Guyana not provide legal support for the transport of weapons used for the genocide of the Palestinian people and that you deny the use of Guyana as a Flag of Convenience for the vessel Kathrin, any other vessel and ensure that as a member state of Caricom you take all necessary actions to ensure Flags of Convenience not be made available by any other Caricom countries.

Yours truly,
BDS Guyana

---

• BDS Guyana, BDS movement, Crime of Genocide, Gaza, MV Kathrin, organisations, Republic of Namibia, Yours truly

---