The government has accepted the Venezuelan government’s response on the incursions into Guyana’s territory by a military contingent on November 15, 2007, “in a show of good faith” even though not all the questions were answered.
The response conveyed Venezuela’s acceptance of a number of proposals Guyana had made to Venezuela to use the UN Secretary General Good Officer Procedure as an instrument in the common search for a peaceful solution to the Guyana/Venezuela territorial controversy.
In its response, the Vene-zuelan government expressed regret at the incident and accepted some of Guyana’s proposals for enhancing bilateral relations while at the same time dealing diplomatically with the Guyana/ Venezuela territorial controversy. Minister of Foreign Affairs Rudy Insanally said Guyana no longer saw taking the Cuyuni incident to the Organisation of American States (OAS) or the United Nations (UN) as necessary.
Contacted on Friday for a follow-up on whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had completed analysing the response to determine whe-ther it adequately addressed and satisfied Guyana’s concerns, Insanally said that even though all the questions Guyana had put forward to Venezuela had not been answered, the government had accepted the response as satisfactory.
He did not say what the unanswered questions were. However, Stabroek News understands that the issue of compensation for the two dredges destroyed by the Venezuelan military and which were owned by Guyanese miners, had not been addressed.
The issue, which apparently embarrassed the Venezue-lan government and to which it responded almost one month after the event, gave Venezuela the opportunity to respond to Guyana’s urging for the reactivation of the UN Good Officer Process and to accept some suggestions which Guyana had previously put forward.
Insanally said the next step would be to establish a joint working group early in January 2008 to recommend measures and mechanisms to obviate the recurrence of such incidents as the November 15 incursion. Both sides agreed to the working group when Rudolfo Sanz, Vice Minister with responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean, delivered the response on December 11, 2007.
Insanally said the need for the establishment of the mechanism had been put forward by Guyana previously and the Venezuelans picked up on it in their response.
While it is expected that the joint working group from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Venezuela’s Ministry of External Affairs would begin meeting next month, Insanally said the reactivation of the UN Good Officer Procedure might take a while longer, since names would have to be proposed and both sides would have to reach consensus on the nominee.
Meanwhile in preparation for January’s joint working group meeting, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is examining Guyana’s relations with Venezuela to see how neighbourly relations could be enhanced.
Both countries have agreed at the Guyana/Venezuela High Level Commission, to review a concrete programme in areas of cooperation in March next year. The commission had been in abeyance for a while.
Insanally said Guyana was looking at all the opportunities available to engage Venezuela bilaterally with the objective of also resolving the territorial controversy. (Miranda La Rose)
