Suriname denies using aggression in Guyanese vessel seizure
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| Published on Friday, October 24, 2008 |
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GEORGETOWN, Guyana: Surinamese Ambassador Manorma Soeknandan has said that the seizure of the vessel, My Lady Chandra 1 was not an act of aggression on the part of her government, but in keeping its maritime legislation.
However this claim has been disputed by Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo, who in an earlier press conference stated that Suriname was trying to impose sovereignty unilaterally over the Corentyne River.
On October 13, the Guyanese-registered My Lady Chandra 1, along with its seven-member crew was seized by the Surinamese military on the Corentyne River.
According to reports, the vessel was on its way to Skeldon when it was pulled in by the Suriname authorities that claimed that the crew was trespassing into Surinamese territory.
However, Soeknandan said that the crew was detained for failing to comply with her country’s maritime legislation.
The Ambassador has placed the crew at fault and said that she did not see any diplomatic route that could be followed.
Soeknandan said that the maritime regulations had always applied and that it was not the first time that Suriname had charted this course with defaulting countries.
She also alluded to Suriname’s claims over the Corentyne River.
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| Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo. AFP PHOTO |
However, Jagdeo has stated that, while Guyana had signaled its willingness to discuss the issue of both the vessel seizure and the claims over the river and was relying on diplomacy rather than aggression, such actions by Suriname might not elicit the same diplomatic response in future.
He asserted that border rivers have certain characteristics and that the sovereignty of rivers should either be shared based on the median line or the notion that the countries were contiguous and should share equal rights.
Jagdeo dismissed Suriname’s claims that there should be a Surinamese pilot on board Guyanese vessels.
He also expressed his disagreement to the claim that the crew was breaching the norms since he said that it was the Surinamese military that arrested and escorted them into their territory.
Guyana had dispatched a diplomatic note protesting to the government of Suriname against such actions; however this was to no avail.
In the September 17 arbitral award, the international tribunal on the law of the sea had ruled on the maritime dispute between Guyana and Suriname and found that the resort to the use of force by Suriname offended international norms and practices. | | | | Reads : 611 |
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