Airspace, maritime monitoring likely to be sorely tested Despite allocation of funds for outfitting Stabroek News November 12, 2000 The Guyana Defence Force's (GDF) ability to discharge its mandate beyond the country's shoreline will be sorely tested despite the provision of $325 million which the government has announced would be made available this year for recapitalization, and the $220 million which it has promised for next year. Observers have told Stabroek News that the governmental response to army requests since 1990 for funds for recapitalisation, has been woefully inadequate given the threat posed by Guyana's neighbours to the east and west. In addition, they say, the response has not taken into account the millions of dollars lost as a result of the poaching of our marine resources on account of the Coast Guard's inability to monitor Guyana's exclusive economic zone effectively. Suriname earlier this year evicted an oil rig operated by the Canadian firm CGX Energy Inc, which had been licensed by the government to explore for oil within Guyana's maritime jurisdiction off the Corentyne. It has also stepped up its patrols of the Corentyne river, and Guyanese fishing boats and passenger boats have been harassed. In one case, members of a Suriname patrol landed at Scotsburg in pursuit of a Guyanese vessel. Guyana's airspace in the area of the New River Triangle has also been violated. In the west, Venezuela has announced its intention to grant oil exploration licences in Guyana's maritime jurisdiction off the Essequibo coast. Last year too, its aircraft invaded Guyana's airspace. According to the Secretary of the Defence Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, the $325 million (US$1.79 million) earmarked for this year is slated for the Air Corps and the Coast Guard. Some of it will be used to rehabilitate the Air Corps fleet of aircraft which consists of a Bell helicopter, an Islander and two Skyvans, and to begin work on the first phase of the rehabilitation of the wharf at the Coast Guard's Ruimveldt base. Stabroek News understands that the Islander and the Skyvans are all now out of operation but it is expected that the Islander may become operable as early as next week. It is not certain when the Skyvans would be repaired. Observers are puzzled by Dr Luncheon's statement that part of this year's allocation would be used to acquire an additional aircraft as well as lease or purchase a vessel capable of carrying out surveillance of Guyana's exclusive economic zone and various other military activities in that area. The cost of a new aircraft-an Islander-is around US$1.4 million. A second-hand one with relatively low flying time could come at around US$350,000 including refitting costs. An older model with considerably more flying hours logged could be obtained for about US$150,000 including refitting costs. Commenting on the proposed leasing or acquisition of a new vessel as announced by Dr Luncheon, sources said that a vessel which could provide some capability to address Suriname's naval strength, would cost in the region of some US$7 million. There were reports that the Canadian authorities had put Guyana in touch with an agency from which it could have acquired Canadian Coast Guard surplus vessels. One such vessel was identified but Stabroek News has learnt that while the government was considering the purchase, it was sold to another buyer. There were reports too that the army was seeking to have the government acquire a commercial vessel, which could have been refitted for military purposes. However, an army source told this newspaper that such reports did not accurately reflect the requests that had been made to the Defence Board. Those requests set out the specifications for the type of vessels needed for high seas and coastal patrols. An aspect of the GDF's deficiency which observers say has been overlooked, is its capacity to move its troops either in an emergency or in pre-planned manner. Even if the army was to plan to do so by air, it could not move more than a company of soldiers minus their kit at any one time. At present the army has to hire trucks to move its troops around the country. According to sources, this arrangement has proved profitable for some truck operators, one of whom now has a fleet of seven trucks after starting out with two, while another currently has a fleet of about ten. These trucks can mistakenly be identified as belonging to the GDF as they are painted in army colours. The cost of hiring these trucks is reported to run into millions of dollars which observers say could go towards rebuilding the army's transport fleet to the level it was in the 1970s. At that time, observers say, a junior commander had the capability of moving a small unit at a moment's notice. Today's the army has a difficulty with moving a platoon at a moment's notice without the involvement of a civilian entity, with all that that implies for the security of its operations. When making his announcement, Dr Luncheon displayed a chart of the growth in capital provision to the army since 1990 - US$0.008 million then to US$2.4 million now. However, knowledgeable sources have pointed out that during this period a significant proportion of the subventions went towards the maintenance of the GDF buildings. Most of these are over thirty years old, and their refurbishment costs were so high that they were classified as capital expenditure. They point out too that over the period, two buildings have been constructed, while the Coast Guard has one currently under construction. Also acquired from these provisions were a number of pick-up trucks and some others described as "command-type" vehicles. The Government during the crisis in June and July when concern about the GDF's preparedness was aggravated by Suriname's actions, referred to remarks by the Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier Atherly, that the army had never been as highly trained as it was at the present time. However, ob-servers agree that while the GDF has the human resource capacity to discharge its mandate of maintaining the country's territorial integrity, this capacity is undermined by a lack of ordnance support. Where the possibility of Guyana accessing equipment for the GDF through bilateral support programmes is concerned, observers have told this newspaper that this could include assistance from the People's Republic of China and the USA. In the latter instance such assistance would be contingent on the signing of a maritime agreement covering drug interdiction cooperation. Stabroek News understands that a response is being awaited from Washington on the comments made on the draft agreement by Guyana's security agencies. Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today