Dear Editor,
The subject of Suriname including Guyana’s New River Triangle in their maps has resurfaced again recently. I travelled to Suriname numerous times for work starting as far back as 1998. I am sure I am not the only one to notice this, but virtually all of the little souvenirs being sold at Suriname’s Johan Pengel Airport carry maps that include the New River Triangle. A few years ago I recall a news item about a group of Surinamese students on a trip – I believe it was to the US – objecting to what they perceived to be the inaccurate map of their country when in fact the map they were looking at was the world recognised map that did not include Guyana’s territory.
A quick search on Google reveals several maps that include the New River Triangle, some with a note that it is disputed territory, many without any such annotation.
What is even more alarming is that two world organisations have been roped into this deceit. The website of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) carries the map of Suriname with the New River area at this link http://www.paho.org/English/DD/ PED/suriname_floods0506.htm.The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations is also guilty of carrying a paper on their website with such a map – see http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6689e/X6689E22.htm.
There is no doubt that this is a deliberate Surinamese policy; first brainwash their own populace and then bully the rest of the world.
Israel has successfully done the same thing in Palestine for almost half a century in defiance of numerous UN resolutions and the rest of the world. Time is the key; the longer and more often the lie is told the more difficult it will be to debunk it later.
And Suriname has been at this for many, many years now. Guyana needs to counter this strategy and it needs to do it quickly.
Yours faithfully,
Tahseen Nasir