Nickerie.Net, zaterdag 18 oktober 2008

Guyanese vrachtboot vrijgegeven
Geplaatst: 18/10/2008

Nickerie - De Guyanese vrachtboot Lady Chandra I die afgelopen dinsdag door de Surinaamse marine op de Corantijnrivier in beslag was genomen, heeft gisteren Suriname verlaten, nadat deze was vrijgegeven. Kleine mechanische mankementen die waren opgetreden in het schip zijn verholpen, waarna de Lady Chandra I onder begeleiding van een Suriname loods richting Guyana is vertrokken. Het schip heeft intussen koers gezet naar de suiker aanmeerhaven van Guysuco te Skeldon. Vanuit deze locatie zal het suiker transporteren naar de Central Demerara Sugar Terminal in Port Georgetown.

DBS verneemt uit betrouwbare bronnen dat in met name de Caribische media slechts de Guyanese versie van het voorval is gepresenteerd. Daarbij is nooit wederhoor toegepast om een Surinaamse reactie te verkrijgen. Met name over de jurisdictie over de Corantijnrivier is er naar verluidt verkeerde informatie door Guyanezen aan de media doorgegeven. Aan de andere kant wordt van Surinaamse zijde door de bevoegde autoriteiten nagelaten om de ware toedracht omtrent het incident en de jurisdictie over de rivier te presenteren o.a. aan de Caribische media.

Danny Jibodh

Confrontation looms between Guyana, Suriname

 Kaieteur News, October 16, 2008

Georgetown - “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.

Guyana Chronicle,  October 16, 2008

Guyana warns Suriname over seizure of cargo ship

Georgetown - ‘We are not taking any option off the table at this time’ – President Jagdeo PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday accused Suriname of wanting to unilaterally impose sovereignty over the border Corentyne River and warned that the Guyana Government is prepared to take all steps necessary to protect the country’s interests.

He said he tried but failed to contact Suriname President Runaldo Venetiaan after the Suriname coast guard Tuesday afternoon seized a Guyanese-owned ship on its way to pick up a shipment of sugar for export from the Skeldon terminal on the Guyanese side of the river.

Mr. Jagdeo told reporters at his official residence in Georgetown that Guyana dispatched a “strong note verbal” to Suriname expressing its concern over this “latest aggressive act” and has briefed the UN and 15-member Caribbean Community on the incident.

He said Suriname did not respond to Guyana’s complaint over a similar incident in the river about a month ago and claimed the seizure of the ‘MV Lady Chandra 1’ Tuesday seems to be a trend by the Suriname military.

Asked if he would deploy the Guyana coast guard in the river to protect Guyanese shipping there, Mr. Jagdeo said “Guyana is not taking any option off the table at this time. We choose the diplomatic route first but that doesn’t mean that we are not prepared to vociferously and strenuously defend our interests.”

The privately-owned ship was contracted by the Guyana National Shipping Corporation based in Georgetown to ferry the bulk sugar from the Skeldon sugar factory to the Demerara Sugar terminal in Port Georgetown.

Mr. Winston Garner, manager for the firm’s Coastal Shipping Department said the ship was still being held in Suriname yesterday afternoon.

Mr. Jagdeo said the Agriculture Ministry has been in touch with the owner who is trying to get the ship and crew released.

He said although sovereignty over the Corentyne River has not been settled, it has the characteristics of a border river, including full user rights and access by both countries.

He recalled the June 2000 expulsion by Surinamese gunboats of a drilling rig contracted by Canada’s CGX Energy Inc to explore for oil offshore the Corentyne River and a ruling by the UN international tribunal on the law of the sea about a year ago giving Guyana rights over almost all the offshore territory.

The tribunal, he said, also found that the eviction of the CGX rig by Suriname was an act of aggression “and that seems to be a pattern with the Surinamese authorities”.

The President said Guyana sought the route of international law after that incident and it was vindicated but its response may not always be the same in the face of the pattern of aggression by the former Dutch colony.

He said after the similar incident about a month ago and the non-response from Suriname to Guyana’s complaint, “I thought it necessary that we go beyond just seeking to make contact with the Head of State of that country (and) we (Tuesday) sent off a strong note verbal to the Surinamese authorities saying how concerned we are about this latest aggressive act and secondly that we will take all steps necessary to protect Guyanese interests.”

“We have made it clear that border rivers have certain characteristics – either the sovereignty of the river is shared based on the median line…or countries that are contiguous to each other and have a river between them should both share full user rights of the river”, he said.

The President reported that he yesterday briefed Opposition Leader Mr. Robert Corbin and Mr. Raphael Trotman, co-leader of the Alliance for Change party on the incident.

“We are not an aggressive country”, he said, noting that since Guyana’s independence from Britain in May 1966, “we have always relied heavily on diplomacy in safeguarding our sovereignty and pursuing our interests (and) we have done so successfully.”

But, he stressed “that doesn’t say that our response will be the same all the time”.

Responding to reports out of Suriname that the captain and crew were being held as illegal immigrants, Mr. Jagdeo said this was puzzling since the men were taken from the ship and escorted to Suriname.

He also said that Guyana does not recognise a Suriname claim that a pilot from that country must be on board a ship using the river.

Meanwhile, Dr Edris K. Dookie, a director here with CGX said the search for crude oil deposits by a contracted seismic ship in the CGX concession 100 miles offshore the Corentyne has not been affected by the seizure of the sugar boat.

“There has been no interference by the Suriname military with the search”, he said yesterday.

Guyana Chronicle,  October 18, 2008

Guyanese cargo ship seized by Suriname returns to Skeldon

The Guyanese-owned cargo ship seized Tuesday by the Suriname military in the border Corentyne River between the two countries returned yesterday afternoon to Skeldon where it began loading sugar for export, the ship’s owner said. Mr. Kampta Persaud told the Guyana Chronicle its scheduled return to Skeldon yesterday morning was delayed because a Suriname pilot was not available to be on board to escort it from Nickerie where the captain and crew were detained with the ship - the ‘MV Lady Chandra 1’.

The captain was kept in a lock-up in Nickerie while the crew remained on the ship in detention, he said.

The men and ship left Nickerie with a Suriname pilot who departed the Guyanese vessel when it reached the buoy off Nickerie, he said.

The vessel with a 560 tonnes hold is due to leave the Guyana Sugar Corporation terminal at Skeldon for Georgetown this morning with the shipment of sugar, he said.

Persaud said the Surinamese military imposed a fine on the captain of the ship but he was not clear on the details of the charge against the Guyanese detained.

The captain, crew and the vessel detained at the Nickerie port on the Suriname side of the river were released Wednesday night.

The vessel was chartered by the Guyana National Shipping Corporation to ferry the sugar from Skeldon to the Central Demerara Sugar Terminal in Port Georgetown.

President Bharrat Jagdeo told reporters Wednesday that this country dispatched a “strong note verbal to the Surinamese authorities saying how concerned we are about this latest aggressive act and…that we will take all steps necessary to protect Guyanese interests.”

Responding to reports out of Suriname that the captain and crew were being held as illegal immigrants, Mr. Jagdeo said this was puzzling since the men were taken from the ship and escorted to Suriname.

He also said that Guyana does not recognise the Suriname claim that a pilot from that country must be on board a ship using the river.

He said the imposition of a fine by the Suriname authorities on the Guyanese detained on the cargo ship “is not good enough for my government” because the Corentyne has the characteristics of a border river, including full user rights and access by both countries.

The United Nations ruled in favour of Guyana last year to set a border in a century-old dispute that included an oil basin off the northeast coast of South America.

The Guyana accusation recalled how Surinamese gunboats in June 2000 expelled Canada’s CGX Energy Inc from an offshore oil concession in disputed waters, prompting a freeze on exploration.

Oil activity has resumed in recent weeks in Guyana due to last year's ruling by the UN International Law of the Sea tribunal.

President Jagdeo argued that although sovereignty over the Corentyne River has not been settled, it has the characteristics of a border river, including full user rights and access by both countries.

He said the UN tribunal in its ruling about a year ago giving Guyana rights over almost all the offshore territory also found that the eviction of the CGX rig by Suriname was an act of aggression “and that seems to be a pattern with the Surinamese authorities”.

The President said Guyana sought the route of international law after that incident and it was vindicated but its response may not always be the same in the face of the pattern of aggression by the former Dutch colony.

He said after a similar incident about a month ago and the non-response from Suriname to Guyana’s complaint, “I thought it necessary that we go beyond just seeking to make contact with the Head of State of that country (and) we (Tuesday) sent off a strong note verbal to the Surinamese authorities saying how concerned we are about this latest aggressive act and secondly that we will take all steps necessary to protect Guyanese interests.”

“We have made it clear that border rivers have certain characteristics – either the sovereignty of the river is shared based on the median line…or countries that are contiguous to each other and have a river between them should both share full user rights of the river”, he said.

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