In yet another attempt aimed at preventing trans-national crimes such as money-laundering, narcotics-trafficking, trafficking in persons, gun-running and violent crimes, Suriname’s Minister of Justice and Police Mr Chandrikapersad Santokhi and Guyana’s Minister of Home Affairs Mr Clement Rohee signed the ‘Nieuw-Nickerie Declaration’ last May. A declaration is just that. But will more paper produce practical enforcement of the law across the Corentyne River?
The declaration is not the first of this sort. Guyana’s President Mr Bharrat Jagdeo and Suriname’s President Mr Ronald Venetiaan had signed an agreement in January 2002 with the identical objective of cooperating to prevent cross-border smuggling, trafficking in narcotics, money-laundering, and other illegal activities, while ensuring that the appropriate duties and taxes are collected. But, over the past six and a half years, what have been the results of that agreement?
Guyana and Suriname are the only Caricom members with a common border. But, from the colonial era, the neighbours have had a strained relationship despite signing reams of agreements on various issues. Much seems to have been lost in translation. In recent times, the two countries’ different approaches to trans-national crime was exemplified by the spectacular June 2006 arrest and subsequent expulsion of the international fugitive Mr Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan by the Korps Politie Suriname. Condemnation, rather than congratulations emanated from the Guyana Government. National security spokesman Dr Roger Luncheon, who is also Chairman of the Central Intelligence Committee and Secretary of the Guyana Defence Board, complained about the “forceful and unlawful removal of its citizen across jurisdictions.”
Years of executive indifference and administrative laxity have made the Corentyne River a channel for contraband smuggling and illegality of every variety. Examples abound.
Suriname Police in March this year arrested three Guyanese citizens in a Guyana-registered motorcar travelling from Nickerie to Paramaribo who had more than 16 kilogrammes of undeclared gold in their possession. It had been suggested that the gold − with an estimated value of US$500,000 − may have been the loot from a robbery the previous month. In April, Suriname police arrested a six-member gang of Guyanese for alleged piracy and hijacking of fishing boats operating in the Coppename River.
Suriname’s police again arrested over two dozen Guyanese nationals in June this year for illegal entry, fishing without a licence in Suriname’s waters, and using fish cages which are banned internationally and prohibited in Suriname. Defence Minister Ivan Fernald declared that the enforcement operation along the Suriname coast will continue in order to secure the livelihood of local fishermen and to protect the country’s fish stock from depletion. Significantly, the arrests were carried out by the Nationaal Leger – the army!
Complaints about Guyana’s lawless fishermen have come from Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Mr Kermechend Raghoebarsing who argued that illegal fishing is threatening fish stocks and sea turtle populations through the use of prohibited techniques and devices. In this regard, it is a pity that Guyana’s Minister of Agriculture Mr Robert Persaud did not accompany his colleague Mr Rohee to add his signature to the Nieuw-Nickerie Declaration. Even the president of the Suriname Seafood Association Mr Prahlad Sewdien complained that scores of Guyanese fishermen have swarmed illegally into the maritime area between the Coppename and Nickerie rivers where they have been harassing local fishermen who have become “aliens” in their own fishing grounds.
Mr Rohee had given assurances after signing the declaration that “Guyana is willing to pool its resources with those in Suriname in order to meet our common objective of defeating the criminal enterprise.” He promised that work to implement elements of the ‘Nieuw-Nickerie Declaration’ will be “activated almost immediately.”
What resources have the Guyana side contributed to the pool? What action has been taken by the Minister of Home Affairs in the past four months to increase the number of police and customs personnel and to stamp out the decades-old backtracking travel routes and contraband corridors across the Corentyne?
