No statement yet on Guyana/Suriname border commissions talks
Acceptable language being searched for
Stabroek News
October 30, 2002
The Guyana and Suriname national border commissions are searching for language agreeable to both sides that would describe conclusions from recent discussions on the New River Triangle and joint exploration of resources in a disputed maritime area.
Talks were held over the weekend in Paramaribo.
The New River Triangle, part of Guyana's territory is being claimed by Suriname. It has published maps incorporating the area in its territory and has displayed these maps in the presence of Guyana government officials and in Guyana. On Friday, the Surinamese delegation in a presentation to CARICOM on CARIFESTA VIII screened a video with the offending map.
About Friday's incident, Foreign Minister Rudy Insanally, said the Government was considering how best to register its disapproval of the incident. Commenting on the delay in the issue of the statement, Insanally told Stabroek News yesterday that it is due to the need to find acceptable language for a public statement on the discussions. The two issues were the subjects of intense talks between the two sides.
Insanally's statement was a reaction to a report in yesterday's issue of the Surinamese daily De Ware Tijd, which claimed that the talks had broken down on the demilitarisation issue. The 1970 agreement reached by the two countries in Chaguaramas, Trinidad provides for the area, to be demilitarised. The agreement came in the wake of the December 1969 ejection by the Guyana Defence Force of elements of the Surinamese military which entered the area without the consent of the Guyana government.
The leader of Suriname's delegation to the weekend talks also denied the De Ware Tijd report. Hans Lim A Po told a press conference yesterday in Paramaribo that while his delegation had expressed Suriname's serious concern at the presence of the Guyanese military in the New River Triangle that the talks had not broken down over the issue. He said the next meeting is planned for January.
Lim A Po reportedly offered the opinion that the continued presence of the Guyanese military in the area could jeopardise Guyana-Suriname cooperation.
He added that the Guyana delegation had explained that the military in the area were there merely for humanitarian purposes and to police the area. According to the reports, the delegation expressed the hope that their explanation addressed the concerns of the Surinamese on the issue.
Lim A Po also explained with regard to the issue of the joint exploitation of the maritime resources of the area in dispute that Suriname was awaiting information from Guyana about the geological and geophysical features of the area which the delegation did not seem unwilling to provide but had indicated that it entailed a lot of work to put together.
Guyana has been pressing for an agreement, pending a resolution of the maritime border between them, on joint exploration and exploitation of the area which Suriname claims as its own. Suriname had forcibly ejected a Canadian oil rig licensed by Guyana from the area in June 2000.
Several rounds of talks bilaterally and mediated by CARICOM have failed to resolve the issue in a manner agreeable to both sides. In January during President Bharrat Jagdeo's official visit to Suriname, it was agreed that a sub-committee would be appointed to look at best practices around the world and would make a recommendation for the national border commissions to consider. The sub-committee met in Georgetown and Paramaribo earlier this year and its recommendation is before the border commissions. (Patrick Denny)