Georgetown protests
In what is being seen by Georgetown as another clear act of aggression, a Guyanese registered vessel was seized while travelling in the Corentyne River and escorted by three Surinamese military vessels to the Surinamese port of Nickerie yesterday afternoon.
The Corentyne River is a border river which separates Guyana and Suriname.
According to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the vessel Lady Chandra 1 was seized by the Surinamese military around 1.30 pm in the Corentyne River yesterday. The river has been the source of a longstanding dispute between the two countries.
According to the release, the vessel was boarded by the Surinamese military and then escorted by the three military vessels to Nickerie.
The Foreign Ministry statement said, “this provocation is the latest in [a series of] recurrent interventions by the Surinamese against Guyanese shipping in the Corentyne River.
“Previously, Guyana has formally dispatched a diplomatic note protesting to the government of Suriname against such actions, all to no avail and without any response.”
Guyana has drawn this latest incident to the attention of the secretaries general of the United Nations and Caricom, the ministry said.
According to reports out of Suriname, the vessel was travelling along the Corentyne River to collect sugar at the Guysuco wharf. It was reported that after it was boarded, the Lady Chandra 1 arrived in the vicinity of the wharf at Corriverton and its crew requested to be allowed to dock to discharge some of its cargo, but Surinamese refused to allow this. In addition, no one was allowed to disembark from the Guyanese vessel.
Up to press time the Lady Chandra 1 and crew were reportedly still at Nickerie.
The ministry said Guyana is closely monitoring this development and intends to take all necessary steps to safeguard its national interests.
The intervention by the military in the border river is reminiscent of the eviction of a CGX rig by the Surinamese military in June 2000 and Guyana’s subsequent actions to have the matter resolved at the bilateral level, then at the level of Caricom. After all failed Guyana took the case to arbitration before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) for a resolution.
The tribunal had found that the rig was well within Guyana’s territorial waters and that Suriname had “acted unlawfully” when it expelled it.
The ministry noted that in its September 17, 2007 arbitral award, the ITLOS tribunal had ruled that Suriname’s resort to the use of force “offended international norms and practices.”
