The difference in the approaches to national security and perceptions of the national interest between Guyana and Suriname were on display again last week. Suriname’s Minister of Justice Chandrikapersad Santokhi was clearly at odds with Guyana’s Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee at the meeting to review the mechanisms established under the Nieuw Nickerie Declaration on security cooperation that was promulgated in May 2008.
Mr Santokhi it was who had triumphantly announced the arrest of the criminal Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan in a law-enforcement operation which netted 213 kg of cocaine in Paramaribo in June 2006. Santokhi deemed Khan “a threat to the national security of Guyana and Suriname and other countries” and linked him to plots to assassinate government and judicial officials in that country. Georgetown was less exuberant.
Chairman of Guyana’s Central Intelligence Committee Dr Roger Luncheon was reported by the Government Information Agency as stating that the Guyana Government could find “no compelling evidence” for Khan to be investigated. Luncheon later affirmed that “The Administration again reiterates its principled objection to the forceful and unlawful removal of its citizen across jurisdiction and emphasizes that it has had no role in the most recent treatment of Mr [Roger] Khan.”
Events have proven that it was Mr Santokhi who was right about Khan’s being a menace to national security and Dr Luncheon who got it wrong.
This time, the main point of disagreement between Guyana and Suriname was the approach to the regularisation of the notorious ‘back track’ Corentyne River crossing between the two countries. Mr Santokhi insisted that Suriname will build port health, immigration, police and customs facilities and agricultural institutions at the ports of entry. Under these new arrangements, all boats participating in the transport of goods and passengers will be required to have an official licence. The Canawaima Ferry Service – the official carrier of passengers between the countries — will continue to be the formal means of transportation between Suriname and Guyana.
The reasons for this, Santokhi said, are that both Guyana and Suriname are members of Caricom and that Suriname will implement the Regional Travel card − Caripass− that gives persons the freedom to move freely in the Caricom region. “Our feeling is that the ‘back-track’ route on the Surinamese side should be institutionalized; that means that we should put the control mechanisms in place − immigration, customs, agriculture − and that all those boats which are used should be licensed and should be subject to security
conditions and security measures.”
Mr Rohee seems to have grasped neither the institutional mechanisms under the CSME for the implementation of Caripass nor the implications of preserving an illegal, dangerous and unregulated international crossing point through which, drugs, guns, gold and other contraband pass.
He iterated stubbornly that “…At this time, the status quo remains in place but both countries will continue to discuss this matter in the future.” When asked to specify what objections Guyana had with Suriname’s proposal, Rohee added only “We don’t have a specific objection. We have a number of concerns and those concerns have been discussed internally within the corridors of the government.”
For Mr Rohee, “Guyana, as a sovereign state, has taken the decision that the status quo must remain in place until such time as we determine that the situation will change…this position is influenced by a number of concerns which is of national interest to Guyana.”
Mr Rohee seems to have misunderstood Suriname’s resolve to regularize the Corentyne River crossing. He has also misunderstood Guyana’s national security needs. Events will prove him wrong.
