Guyana, Suriname border commissions meet fruitful -AG
Stabroek News
October 27, 2002
The two-day joint meeting of the national border commissions of Guyana and Suriname ended yesterday in Paramaribo and Attorney-General Doodnauth Singh who led the local delegation described the meeting as successful.
The meeting was seen as pivotal in providing a solution to the row that erupted between the two countries after the Surinamese Navy evicted an oil rig from Guyana's waters in June 2000. Guyana has been pressing for a solution which would allow it to continue drilling for oil in the area.
Speaking with Stabroek News last evening from his hotel in the Surinamese capital, the Attorney-General said that two issues were discussed extensively and that both sides had put their positions clearly on the table. He said that a joint statement is being prepared.
Ahead of the statement, Singh explained that as a result of the extensive discussions, "an acceptable formula is being developed" to address the issue of exploitation of the resources in the disputed maritime area claimed by both countries and which was at the centre of the 2000 dispute. He said that the formula would include joint exploration.
Stabroek News understands that the other issue discussed was the demilitarisation of the New River Triangle which Surinamese maps show as belonging to Suriname despite repeated protests by Guyana. On Friday in Georgetown, at the presentation of their plans for the next Carifesta, which Paramaribo is hosting, the Surinamese screened a video on the history of Suriname which included a map incorporating the New River Triangle as Surinamese territory.
CARICOM Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington and Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy were in the audience at the CARICOM event. Earlier, this year during his visit to Suriname, President Bharrat Jagdeo was subjected to the ignominy of having to sit through a screening of a video by the oil company Staatsolie, which also showed the New River Triangle as being part of Suriname. (Patrick Denny)