Dear Editor,
I wish to advise that while it is true that the writer of the article entitled ‘Nothing exists that determines the status of Corentyne River’ (Kaieteur News, October 22, 2008, page 11) spoke with me and I did indicate that since there is no agreement between Guyana and Suriname delimiting where the boundary is in relation to that waterway, I made absolutely no reference to the Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Water Courses.
The writer failed to make a distinction between what I said and his/her own statements on the matter, giving the reader the impression that the entire story is attributable to me. In fact, in today’s (October 23) edition of Kaieteur News, on page 9, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is being accused of invoking the provisions of the Convention of the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Water Courses in relation to the Guyana position on the Corentyne River.
I wish to make it clear that neither myself nor my staff made any such connection since that convention has no relationship to the current issues.
Yours faithfully,
Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett
Minister of Foreign Affairs