Surinamese Ambassador to Guyana, Manorma Soeknandan says that the recent seizure of Guyanese vessel MV Lady Chandra 1 by Surinamese authorities was not an act of aggression, but merely Suriname protecting its maritime boundaries.
The vessel was seized last week Tuesday on the Corentyne River while it was on its way to Skeldon to transport bulk sugar for export.
According to Soeknandan the vessel was not seized by the military but by the Maritime Authority. She said that the military was in no way involved, but that the police merely escorted the Maritime officials while they were transporting the Guyanese vessel. She said this was an agreement that was in existence since 1981 and stated that it also applied to Surinamese vessels.
The Ambassador said that the vessel was seized because it had exceeded a certain stipulated tonnage. Once the vessel exceeds a certain tonnage it requires a Surinamese pilot, according to Surinamese regulations. She also stated that this weight limit also applied to Surinamese vessels.
Soeknandan was speaking after yesterday’s launch of the Regional Task Force on Cultural Industries at the Caricom Secretariat when she was approached by reporters for comment on this matter.
Following the seizure of the boat, its captain, Arnold Garraway, was placed in the lockups and the other six crew members were left on board the vessel. The vessel and its crew were eventually released after the payment of a fine of US$400.
The ship’s owner Kampta Persaud told this newspaper that the ship has been contracted since 1982 by the Guyana Sugar Corporation to transport sugar for export from Berbice to the Demerara terminal.
Garraway told Stabroek News in an interview after his release 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 a 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 had 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.
