A Crabwood Creek logger at Ganesh Singh & Brothers Logging/Contours has said that Suriname police seized his boat and engine after detaining him along with his manager and five workers and then deporting them for being “illegal in Suriname waters.”
Ganesh Singh told this newspaper that he had done an inventory in an area along the Corentyne River and on Friday three forestry officers accompanied him and the workers to conduct a verification exercise.
He said the Suriname police were towing a pontoon that was apparently used for dredging, back to Suriname when they made the arrest. He and his workers were detained and later deported to Guyana via the Molsen Creek ferry.
According to him, on Monday he sent the forestry officers to the Wonotobo Resort while he proceeded to Cow Falls to wait on them to travel back home the following morning.
Singh said in the meantime he stopped at Matawai to do fishing with rods and while there the Suriname police approached him and requested that he produce his passport.
He said his workers had already been held up along with two chainsaws, a 75 HP Yamaha outboard engine and a quantity of grocery and they later said that the police had beaten them badly.
The logger told Stabroek News that he found it strange that he was asked to produce his passport since he had been travelling in the Corentyne River for over 35 years and he was never asked to do so before. Singh said while the forestry officers were on their way to meet him at Cow Falls they saw his boat on the pontoon and stopped since some of their belongings were in his boat. But the Suriname police threatened to arrest them as well if they could not produce their passports. It was only after Singh explained to the police that the men were forestry officers and had never been in the Corentyne River before that they were allowed to go. The forestry officers then reported the plight to Singh’s family.
He pointed out that on Tuesday morning the pontoon was grounded on a rock and the police asked him to go with his boat to a police outpost at Aporea, West Suriname. The logger said they remained there for the day then the police later took them to Sokoe’s Sawmill. He said the police ranks removed his engine and transported it in the police van to the police station. He could not say what they had done to his boat.
After he arrived in Guyana yesterday he made a report to the ranks at the Springlands Police Station. He reiterated that he and his workers were wrongfully held as the only way to access his logging concession was through the Corentyne River.
He plans to “take up” the matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and questioned whether the residents travelling from Orealla would also have to produce passports.
