In the wake of yet another piracy attack on Berbice fishermen the government in a statement late yesterday said it had now confirmed that the pirates were using Suriname as a safe haven after committing their attacks on Guyanese vessels in the eastern sector of Guyana’s maritime space.
Reports have indicated that some 15 boats were subject to attack by pirates last Sunday causing Agriculture Minister yesterday to call on Suriname to support Guyana in its fight against piracy.
“We need to see greater demonstration by Suriname to support our effort on piracy,” the minister said at a media conference yesterday.
Reports said that five of the boats which were attacked in the Atlantic Ocean are said to be missing. The recent acts of piracy have angered fishermen who have threatened to take their own action if something is not done.
Meanwhile the statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last evening said that government was determined to eradicate the operations of pirates and would redouble its efforts in this regard.
It reiterated its concern about the development of a pattern in which fishing vessels were being hijacked and their crews killed or maimed.
“These brutal crimes are also threatening the growth of an important industry and seriously affecting the livelihood of our fishermen and their families,” the statement said.
The statement went on to say that it would be making use of every opportunity to put and end to the use of the territory of neighbouring states by pirates as safe havens through surveillance cooperation and other initiatives.
Some of the fishermen who have suffered at the hands of pirates are not surprised about the government claim that their attackers escaped to Suriname.
Earlier victims had recounted how masked armed men stole their engines and their catches and then left them stranded in the deep sea, and some had expressed the view that the pirates were Surinamese who had joined up with Guyanese to commit their crimes.
At a recent Cabinet outreach to Region 6 last month, President Bharrat Jagdeo during an interview had announced that Guyana would be making a formal approach to Suriname to discuss piracy issues. “Now that we have a defined boundary we should cooperate and now especially with the piracy because many of our fishermen have been subjected to piracy in Surinamese waters, we need to collaborate because we have good relations and I try to maintain that,” the Government Infor-mation Agency (GINA) had quoted the president as saying.
During that outreach where residents raised their concerns again, Jagdeo had said that there was nothing the Guyanese authorities could do if the piracy attacks on fishermen took place in Surinamese waters.
Cabinet had also concluded it was possible that the pirates involved in the brutal attacks may not all be Guyanese and therefore the government had requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to approach Guyana’s neighbouring countries to enlist support in grappling with the scourge, Dr Roger Luncheon had told the media.
Berbice residents believe that pirates may have caused the deaths of three East Coast Demerara fishermen who went missing after the crew of six left the Meadow Bank Wharf on October 12, aboard the fishing vessel Captain Noel.
The bodies of three of the men had washed up on the ice shore while the other three are still missing.
The remains of the men, Patrick Narayan Parboo, 20; Rameshwar Gangadin, 24, and Mark ‘Buddy’ Parshram were later identified and then reburied by relatives.
The other three men, Davendra Persaud, 21; Navendra Gangadin and Christopher Rooplall, 19, are still missing and relatives are preparing themselves for the unwelcome news that they may have suffered the same fate.
