Dear Editor,
Much to the detriment of Guyanese, one of the major shortcomings of this PPP/C government is the failure to follow up on plans and promises once officials think that the public has forgotten about them. The administration unveiled plans to deal with everything from crime to suicides to blackouts, and what happened? Nothing.
This is exactly what happened to the scourge of piracy which continues to bedevil fishermen to this day.
Editor, piracy is nothing new; it has been around for ages including the twenty-one years that the PPP/C has been in power. When incidents of piracy peaked in 2007 the government unveiled a flurry of plans to contain it, none of which was fully implemented, the result: fishermen continue to be terrorised, beaten, robbed, tortured and even killed as they brave the challenges of the high seas to earn a dollar and contribute to the local economy.
Fishing is not a small business in Guyana. According to official statistics 14,000 Guyanese work on fishing boats, 5,800 men and women work in the fish processing industry and 15,000 persons are employed in the support sector, building and maintaining boats, and repairing and selling fishing equipment. Fish and shrimp account for some 11% of export earnings. One would think that with so many citizens depending on fishing for their daily bread, and seafood being such a major export commodity, the government would take piracy seriously and work to stamp it out.
Unfortunately, the government has all but ignored the problem. Fishermen have been complaining for years to the Ministry of Agriculture, Guyana Defence Force, Guyana Police Force, Guyana Revenue Authority and Ministry of Works, all of which control some aspect of maritime law enforcement.
When a group of fishermen, fed up with the situation, approached Minister Rohee, he told them that he cannot deal with everybody; they have to form an association and send representatives to see him. Further, he suggested that they form their own committee like a policing group. Can you believe it?
Of course the fishermen who travelled to Georgetown to see the minister were desperate for help. In November 2008, an attack by pirates at the Rose Hall foreshore ended with a shootout leaving Detective Constable Travis Glasgow dead along with 57-year-old fisherman Hector Boodhoo who was tortured and killed while tied to a tree.
On October 28, 2009, five pirates attacked the Prince Oman, a fishing boat, taking two fishermen hostage – one from Corentyne, the other from Annandale – hostage and stealing the whole boat with equipment and catch worth $6 million. The bodies of the hostages were found two days later as the survivors of the attack recovered from shotgun pellet wounds.
In March 2010, fisherman Narine Sundar was beaten mercilessly with cutlasses by three pirates near the Corentyne foreshore. His engine and other valuables were taken by three pirates and he was left without a means of making a living.
On June 4, 2013, five armed pirates attacked five fishermen at sea, tied them up, threw them overboard, stole their equipment and supplies and set fire to their boat. Two of the victims drowned, the three survivors somehow made it to shore.
Of course these are just a few examples, the reality is that these attacks happen with frightening frequency. The fishermen are now so frustrated with the inaction of the Guyanese authorities that they have just given up. In July 2013, when pirates attacked a group of fishermen, the men fought back and managed to subdue the attackers. The Guyanese fishermen then went to Suriname and handed the pirates over to Surinamese authorities because they had lost all confidence in the Guyanese government.
Editor, we know that this administration is adept at making excuses. The government will say that there are not enough human resources, equipment and technology to patrol our 432 kilometres of coastline. They will say that money is limited. But let us look at the facts.
With so many families depending on the fishing industry, not to mention the contribution of fishing to the economy, the government simply has to do more to keep these workers safe and protect their equipment
The government needs to allocate manpower and material resources to fighting piracy; intelligence gathering has to be improved and the various ministries involved have to coordinate their efforts to eliminate redundancy and maximise efficiency. The security vacuum in the maritime zone must be eliminated; lives are at stake.
In November 2013 the University of the West Indies (UWI), Department of Engineering made an extremely generous offer to the Government of Guyana. The university was prepared to share anti-piracy technology that could turn the tide against the criminals, free of cost. Using common, cheap cell-phone technology, fishermen could send a distress signal by pressing a button. So, if an attack is imminent a fisherman could push a button on the boat and the system could call the GDF Coast Guard, the police, maritime administration and anyone else programmed into the system. It could even send automatic emails telling the authorities the exact GPS coordinates of the vessel. This system is currently in use in Trinidad and Tobago and other countries. I do not know if the government accepted the offer because again, nothing has been said since then.
Presently, the number of attacks is somewhat lower, but the experts say that piracy always increases with drug trafficking, gun smuggling, fuel smuggling and backtracking. So we can expect to see another wave of attacks unless this government gets its act together and takes action to protect our brave fishermen.
Yours faithfully,
Mark DaCosta
