Dear Editor,
Suriname media and elite politicians’ pro Venezuela narrative needs an education so that accurate information is presented to the Suriname public. I am referring to an article titled, “Esequiba en Tigri, alter Albion,” in the Star News of Suriname on November 28 by Ms. Aashna Kanhai, former Suriname Ambassador to India who holds a biased and uninformed knowledge on the issue. United News and other media outlets also published inaccurate information on the issue. Ms. Kanhai is clearly peddling pro Venezuela propaganda, and not at all objective in her anti Guyana diatribe. These are some of the articles: (
https://m.starnieuws.com/index.php/welcome/index/nieuwsitem/78664)
Also “Point to Ponder” for all, Guyana has welcomed many Suriname businesses in Guyana and they are thriving. Also, we in Guyana know that over 30,000 Guyanese fled to Suriname during the Burnham PNC dictatorship and economic bankruptcy of Guyana. Don’t fan the flame of resentment towards Guyana. It should be noted that Guyana and Suriname took their maritime dispute to the International Court of Justice and that resolution is binding. Maduro is in violation of the 1899 arbitration settlement between the two countries which settled the border between Guyana and Venezuela and that was final. This fact is missing in most of the narratives being peddled in Suriname. Remember, it was Saddam Hussein, a US ally that ripped up an agreement that settled its Shaat Al Arab border with Iran. Saddam Hussein then went to war with Iran. The United States backed Saddam with on time intelligence so he could gas over 100,000 Iranians to death. We should all be careful in not fanning the flames of war. Suriname’s political elites have strong ties with the Chavez-Maduro Regimes. Ms. Aashna Kanhai’s bias and incomplete knowledge of the Guyana Venezuela border settlement is blatant and on purpose because as a lawyer and diplomat, she knows better but fanning propaganda. Here are some key pieces of information on the issue:
1. The border was solved by arbitration when Venezuela got the mighty USA to push the British government to go to arbitration, and the United States imposed the Monroe Doctrine claiming Latin America as its protectorate. Venezuela was awarded 90% of the disputed land. The agreement was signed by all parties to accept the Tribunal ruling in 1899.
2. Most of the then disputed land, around 90%, was awarded to Venezuela and there was no Venezuela protest but celebrations. Go look at their maps during 1897 to the 1950s.
3. Much later, in 1962 Venezuela suddenly woke up and reignited the issue with all sorts of lies.
4. Guyana is an independent nation from a colonial legacy of brutal competitive of Colonization by Europeans, including the Conquistadors who took that land from Amerindians and named it Venezuela. Thus, England need not answer or speak for Guyana today – Ms. Aashna Kanhai. Guyana is an independent and sovereign nation. We all inherited the White Man’s Burden Civilizing Nakaba. We can handle our business and as a global community we should respect international covenants.
5. Ms. Kanhai must know that the Guyana Suriname land dispute is under active deliberations to be resolved by the two parties and it is not at all the same as the Guyana Suriname issue. I remind her that the Netherlands, Suriname’s colonizer, isn’t involved in this ongoing issue. She supports Venezuela’s claims that England is still part of the conflict today, and which the ICJ said “no” to.
Aashana Kanhai, many Suriname media outlets and political elites are supporting or peddling Venezuela’s propaganda.
Sincerely,
Ray Chickrie