How many more persons must perish needlessly because of the tolerance that taints official attitudes towards the lawless traffic across the Corentyne River?
Two women – Ashrani Hansranie and Cheryl Peters – drowned when a ‘water taxi’ capsized after its propeller became snagged by a fishing seine in the Corentyne River in February 2007. When this newspaper interviewed Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Clement Rohee, in the wake of those deaths, he remarked nonchalantly that citizens could not continue to do the wrong thing and expect the state’s protection.
As minister responsible for public safety, Mr Rohee seemed not to comprehend that those deaths were preventable man-made disasters. He has since evinced neither the inclination to go beyond admonition nor the intention to eradicate, or even regulate, the dangerous river traffic. Hence, beyond minister’s airy advice to citizens to desist from crossing on illegal water taxis, neither the Ministry of Home Affairs nor the Guyana Police Force has done anything to stop the practice.
Like a raging disease without a remedy, the human safety situation worsened with a fatal recurrence last Friday evening. This time, another illegal water taxi – Ms Sevi 2 – travelling from Suriname to Guyana with eight persons, capsized after the boat’s propeller became entangled with a fishing seine. This time, the death toll soared to six.
Fast and nasty, the water taxis attract thousands of passengers to traverse this perilous passage between the two countries. But it seems that the flimsy vessels usually have either an insufficient number, or an inappropriate type, of life jackets for the passengers. These vessels lack the minimal safety standards and life-saving equipment and the ‘captains’ lack certification for public river transportation safety. Relatively few water taxi services traverse the illegal route but the administration has avoided regulating their activities which are conducted openly. In an accident, passengers must either sink or swim.
Needless to say, the ‘backtrack’ route over three decades has become a notorious conduit not only for innocent commuters but also for assorted contraband commodities and for criminals roving through the three Guianas – Guyana, Suriname and Guyane. Even the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce has called for the traffic to be ‘regularised.’ President of the chamber Mr David Subnauth had argued disingenuously that illegal cross-border trade “is assisting Guyana’s economy” and that using the official port of entry at Moleson Creek “is time consuming.”
It is evident that the ornamental presence of the Berbice Anti-Smuggling Squad has had no impact either on the contraband trade. Neither has the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard nor the Guyana Police Force marine unit been able to ensure river transportation safety.
The ‘Nieuw-Nickerie Declaration’ agreed last May between Mr Rohee and Suriname’s Minister of Justice and Police Chandrikapersad Santokhi could have served as the basis for restoring order to the unruly Corentyne frontier. Mr Rohee promised that work to implement elements of that Guyana-Suriname agreement would be started “almost immediately” but, predictably, there has been neither an increase in resources to the East Berbice-Corentyne police nor any visible improvement in law enforcement.
Had the minister learnt the lesson of last year’s loss of life under similar circumstances, this new man-made disaster could have been averted. But the Ministry of Home Affairs seems to place a low value on human life and continues to be soft on smugglers, traffickers and assorted illegal operators in the Corentyne contraband zone. Asked why the administration has not moved to exercise regulatory oversight over the dangerous crossings, Mr Rohee confessed lamely that “some of the operators do not want this.”
Can this really be the reason for ignoring this risky illegality?
