-captain tells SN
The MV Lady Chandra I was virtually at the Skeldon wharf on Tuesday when it was intercepted by a Surinamese gunboat with eight soldiers which then called for back-up boats and forced the sugar transport vessel to Nickerie.
Captain of the MV Lady Chandra 1, Arnold Garraway made this disclosure in a telephone interview with Stabroek News while he and his crew were returning to Guyana from Nickerie mid-afternoon yesterday.
Garraway also disclosed that when he was in the Suriname lock-ups on Tuesday, a captain of a Guyanese fishing vessel shared the cell with him. The captain and the crew of another vessel which had been seized a week earlier was also released and his vessel returned to Guyana without their catch, shortly after the MV Lady Chandra 1 was escorted by a pilot vessel from Port Nickerie yesterday.
He added that shortly before they left Nickerie yesterday a third Guyanese captain and crew were also given the go ahead to return to Guyana. The captain of that crew, he said, was from Number 65 Village on the Corentyne and they had been held for almost a week. In their case, he said the captain had to face the court in Paramaribo where he was made to pay a fine before he was released.
Relating his experience, Garraway, who said that he had been plying the route regularly over the past thirteen years transporting bulk sugar from the Skeldon terminal for export, said it was the first time that he was pulled in by the Surinamese authorities.
He and his crew had left Port Georgetown shortly before midnight on Monday, October 13. It was about 12:35 pm on Tuesday that they were stopped by the Surinamese gunboat.
He said MV Lady Chandra I was “right up near to the wharf” at Skeldon when a Surinamese gunboat with about eight soldiers accosted the vessel. The Surinamese coastguards, about eight, boarded the vessel and told them they were in Suriname waters and that they have to go to Nickerie.
“We say we are not going to Nickerie,” he said and explained the journey they were on. They told him that the MV Lady Chandra I could not go to Skeldon because they were in Surinamese territory. He told them that he and his crew had been travelling on the river carrying out the same tasks for the past 13 to 14 years and they were never harassed. They told him that Guyanese would have to stop using the river. Feeling indignant, he said he asked them if “we have to dig another channel to go about our business.”
He said he never stopped the vessel. Because of the resistance, he said they called for backup and two other gunboats arrived with more soldiers and policemen. “They surrounded the boat,” he said. Those who boarded his vessel asked for his documents and that of the vessel and they confiscated them. They were returned after he was released.
In the meantime, he said that he called the Guyana National Shipping Corporation (GNSC), which had contracted the vessel to transport the sugar on behalf of the Guyana Sugar Corporation, and the owner of the vessel Kampta Persaud to inform them about their whereabouts. He said he had received a telephone call from the Guyana coastguard, which promised to call back but they never did.
When they got to Nickerie, he said that as captain, he was the only one held in the lock-up. The others had to remain on the boat. “They (the Surinamese authorities) never allowed them to go ashore,” he said.
He spent from Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening in the lock-up sharing the space with the captain of the Guyanese fishing boat, who was released on Thursday. He had been held even before Garraway in the concrete cell which had no bed and no roof. “If the rain had fallen, I don’t know what would have happened to us,” he said. They gave them food but he said that he could not eat and only drank the liquid.
When they were leaving yesterday, he said that the captain for the fishing boat who had been taken to Paramaribo had been released and he too was preparing to return to Guyana. The catches of both vessels had been confiscated.
“Somebody has to do
something”
Based on discussions with the captain who was incarcerated with him, he said it would appear as though a number of vessels have been seized in recent weeks and nobody in government seems to know “what is going on. Nobody can’t go about their regular business, or, even go home in peace? They harassing everybody. Somebody has to do something,” he said adding, “I don’t know what the government is doing but we have to get some assurances.”
Guyana has deemed the seizure of the vessel as another act of aggression and has registered its protest in a note verbale but it has had no response from the Suriname government.
Suriname is contending that the MV Lady Chandra I sailed the Corentyne River without a Surinamese pilot on board as requested by the Maritime Authority of Suriname (MAS), which in May 2006 restarted the piloting of (international) ships on the Corentyne River.
However, President Bharrat Jagdeo has said that Guyana does not recognize Suriname’s administrating the waterway. He said that the Corentyne River was a border river on which both countries should have user rights. In the case of Suriname, he said that the neighbouring country was trying to impose sovereignty unilaterally over the river even though Guyana has indicated a willingness to discuss the issue.
Garraway and his crew were scheduled to pick up a cargo of sugar from the Skeldon terminal last evening and leave there this morning for Port Georgetown.
Guyana has to assert itself. Gunboats are needed.
……i support this …..the day guyana test the rocket launcher….suriname will never do what the did…….i can remember when 1010 used to be base in the berbice rive….the surinamies respected the gun boat 1010 it sit in the water like a kiman…..we need more 1010 in berbice and you see some respect put in place for this partof guyana…….if not address done we are in trouble……..
And Vijay will captain the gunboat…
We already have some guntrawlers!!
Where is Jagdeo? Where is the Guyana coast guard? There should be some visibility of the CG in the area while the Govt. intercedes diplomatically.
This is where Jagdeo has his priorities wrong.He should be using the military to protect the sovereignty of the country rather have them harassing its citizentry.
http://www.landofsixpeoples.com/news022/ns210179.htm
“The Suriname government contends, however, that the Corentyne River is a national river. In 1967, the government of Suriname stated that in a treaty signed in 1799 between the Dutch and the British all of the territory west of the Corentyne river was ceded to the colony of Berbice and the border was the left bank of the Corentyne from its mouth to its source. The Suriname government claims that the Corentyne is a national river which lies within its territory and not a boundary river.”
“However, in 1662 twelve years after Suriname was colonized by Lord Willoughby, Charles 11 of England gave him a charter delineating the western boundary of that colony one mile west of the Coppename River. Five years later, in 1667, Suriname was ceded by the English to the Dutch. In the 1680’s Van Pere of Berbice and Cornelis van Aersen van Somelsdyk, the governor of Suriname, decided that Devil’s creek, situated west of the Corentyne River, would be the boundary between their plantations and colonies.”
according to what I have been reading Mr.Jagdeo has done and is not doing anything for his people or to represent Guyana.The negative reports no wonder Guyana has not been part of the Eu as yet.
There goes another unanswered note verbale by Surniname. Business will continue as usual with the Surinames harassing the Guyanese in our waters and our authorities doing the same thing, send Suriname a stern note verbale which they scoff at.
Alternatively, Guyana can wage war. Hope John Smith enlists.
International Court we go…
In studying the history of the Guyana/Suriname border, I had learnt that Barbice was once a state/county of the Dutch Territory, and had its’ own governor who had agreed with the governor of the East Bank of the Corentyne River that; “the border between the two states is the high water mark on the West Bank of the Corentyne River.”
Suriname continues to implement this agreement today against the Guyanese Government and People. They are claiming even the exposed land at low tide on the Guyana’s side of the border. This problem must be resolved in International Court.
If Surinam refuses to accept standard sensible INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS to such disputes and if the International Court cannot offer a binding solution, then Guyana needs to invest in some Chinese-made shore-based artillary batteries. Guyana then claims the half-way mark along the Corentyne River.
MV Lady Chandra I was on government business and VIRTUALLY AT SKELDON WHARF when it was intercepted by Surinamese gunboats and forced to sail to Nickerie.
The Guyanese boat’s captain said he had received a telephone call from the Guyana coastguard, which promised to call back BUT THEY NEVER DID CALL BACK WITH ADVICE!
WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE STOP THIS MADNESS.
GUYANESE SHIPPING SHOULD NOT HAVE TO USE STEALTH IN ORDER TO USE THE RIVER, WHICH IS THEIR INTERNATIONAL BORDER.
GUYANA SHOULD BE ABLE TO USE THE CORENTYNE RIVER AT LEAST, UP TO HALF OF ITS WIDTH.
WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT OF GUYANA DOING ABOUT STOPPING OUR SHIPPING FROM BEING SNUFFED OUT?
DOES ANYONE IN GOVERNMENT KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON?
WE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW!
As I have said before on this issue, it is just a game between the PPPGovt., some of its supporters and the Surinamese. The problem is that this dangerous gaming will hurt ordinary Guyanese who cannot even get a ticket to enter the arena in which it is being played!
It’s high time that the Guyana Govt instruct the GDF coast guard to safe guard Guyanese shipping. If Surinaime wants a confrontation, then so be it. This ‘eye-pass’ has been going on for too long.
way to go rattler, hope you join the confrontation.. in flesh, not spirit only
I agree with all the other bloggers, guyana needs to be assertive and let suriname knows that we are not playing, or else this nonsense will continue, the disrespect has to stop.
total disrespect for the people of guyana on the part of suriname, i cant believe that this govt would stand idley by and dont take any action against suriname’s blatant and bafeface agression, this is as we say `EYEPASS’ TO THE FULLEST,come into skeldon and seized guyana’s boats, c’on jagdeo do something.
The govt of Guyana should use the coast guard to protect their vessels and citizens on the corentyne river . So much for being member states of CARICOM .
If the boat was moored alongside the warf, then what is thte problem? But once again this is provocation from Suriname. Addedto that, the promise to call back from the Coast Guard. One more case of incompetence. I don’t care what equipment you give people, it takes some sort of policy and competence to make these work. This seem to be lacking in Guyana at almost all levels.
Surinam’s behaviour is totally irrational and provocative. This unacceptable behaviour forces Guyana to spend money needed for development for gunboats and diplomatic activity unnecessary. Unfortunately, we have to have adequate security against Surinam’s and piracy activities. By did the coast guard not call the captin back? How effective are they anyhow? Security is a haphazard operation in Guyana. How is the GDF employed?