The right thing to do
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
March 6, 2004
GUYANA'S recourse to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as a means of achieving a settlement of its maritime and continental stream offshore and claims, must be supported by all peace-loving Guyanese. It must be borne in mind that the process of working towards an extra-bilateral agreement and pact is essential to any recognition of territorial boundaries and, of course, sovereignty viz-a-viz, specifically in this case, the Republic of Suriname.
Under the circumstances this initiative was the right thing to do. Moving to UNCLOS is also timely in the sense that several other underdeveloped states that place crucial importance on maritime and Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) activities and developments are at varying stages and processes in the resolution of disputes with other states.
Kenya and Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Chile and Ecuador and, most recently, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, are among these involved parties.
The fact that Suriname through its government spokespersons has expressed its intentions publicly at the level of the Border Commission is another factor that supports the Government of Guyana decision.
There must be, and readers will agree, some limit to the pattern of marine/surface/air violations, incursions and contraventions of Guyana's EEZ as a demarcated sovereign 'arch' - approximately 140,000 square kilometers in size.
But these trawler and armed patrol boat activities (illegal and, provocative at times) extend beyond the CGX episode of June 2000.
Today, as was the experience more than two decades ago, these violations of Guyana's sovereignty impinge on national security concerns, above all the grave threats and dangers posed by organized narco trafficking and transfers to second countries outside of the Caribbean region.
There has arisen, therefore, a clearly identified option to explore and sustain approaches that are extra-bilateral and that conform to international law.
An examination of the statements of Suriname's leaders such as the NPS 'triumvirate' of Presidents Runald Venetian and Ramsawack Shankar and Foreign Minister Marie Levens would reveal that 'control factor' of diplomacy and legalistic concepts that are derivative from Amsterdam and Utreacht, as well as New York. Dialectically, there are constraints that inhibit and devalue policy formation as Guyana has experienced in dealings with the Suriname elite.
However, with the exception of the militarized units in our neighbour's navy and air wing, everybody else articulates "a special resolution of the differences." There is additionally the dangerous utterances of the Jahmohan influenced compradors and a few chauvinists.
Guyana's most recent decision should therefore be seen as offering a profound opportunity and opening for Paramaribo to take advantage and counsel of the globally endorsed UNCLOS, as well as those sub-committees that have led the way towards a partial agreement of contentious matter, up until the present time.