Quiet returns to Guyana's borders --army Stabroek News October 10, 1999 Quiet has returned to Guyana's eastern border with Suriname and its western border with Venezuela after last week's troubling events. Army sources have told Stabroek News that the incident on Thursday, during which the Surinamese Coast Guard intercepted four speed boats with passengers in the Corentyne River about 200 yards from Guyana's shore was a "one-off" incident. One of the four boats which were escorted back to the Surinamese side of the river is owned by a Guyanese. They say too that the Venezuelan National Guard contingent on the Guyana border had returned to normal strength, following incidents on Tuesday which Foreign Minister Clement Rohee described as cause for concern in the context of the border controversy and the absence of any advance warning that they would take place. Rohee's. Venezuelan counterpart has assured him that the events had posed no threat to Guyana's sovereignty and territorial integrity but Rohee has informed the UN Good Officer Sir Alister McIntyre about the incidents. Army and government sources have said that no formal explanation had yet been given for Thursday's incident, which unofficially has been described as an operation against smuggling and backtracking. The speed boats were headed for an unofficial disembarkation point at Corriverton which is a stone's throw from the police station at Springlands. However, they say that the absence of an official explanation is not inconsistent with the Surinamese handling of such matters. They describe this as part of that country's strategy of trying to assert sovereignty over the Corentyne River which forms the border between the two countries. They explained that if over time Suriname's assertion of that sovereignty remains unchallenged it would strengthen its case in the border dispute with Guyana. Last year, several fishing vessels were detained by the Surinamese Coast Guard and their crews taken before the courts. It took the intervention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Surinamese lawyers retained by the fishermen to effect their release and the return of their boats and equipment. An agreement which should minimise the incidence of these events is yet to be signed despite "on and off negotiations" in progress now for several years. The incidents which caused the Guyana government's concern occurred on Tuesday at the border points at Ankoko, Imbotero and Kaikan. The incidents involved shots being fired from Ankoko Island, half of which the Venezuelans have been occupying illegally since 1968, and intrusions into Guyana's airspace. Tuesday's incidents followed the reiteration of Venezuela's claim to the Essequibo region in the message it issued to mark the centennial of 1899 Arbitral Award. Venezuela considers the award a nullity claiming that it robbed it of the Essequibo region. In its centennial message, Guyana reiterated the validity of the Award and said that it was a full and final settlement of its border with Venezuela. The local programme which should have been in place to sensitise the public and mobilise support for the maintenance of Guyana's territorial integrity did not come off. The programme should have been planned by a committee which included Rashleigh Jackson, a former foreign minister, and Cedric Joseph, a former head of the Presidential Secretariat. However, the work of the committee got underway too late. The committee was formed in response to a letter in the Stabroek News from Jackson suggesting that such a programme be mounted. A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples