I stand by my view that there are risks in way World Court has framed the issues

Dear Editor,

Please let me express appreciation to Minister Carl Greenidge for his letter `Advisory Committee on border case is considering pleadings to be prepared and the Counsel and Advocates will be geared for all relevant eventualities’ in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek.

He knows that he has my respect as do the members of the Advisory Committee and the legal team, some of whom are close friends. My respect also extends to their Excellencies President Ali and  Minister of Foreign Affairs Todd who have commented on this matter.

Please let me also express appreciation to you and Stabroek News for helping to ventilate the serious issues involved in this case. It surely is good to look at the complex issues involved from different angles.

Minister Greenidge and the Government understandably feel  that Guyana won an important victory in getting the Court to accept that it has jurisdiction in the case. While recognizing this, I stand by my view that there are risks in the way the Court has framed the issues over which it has now taken jurisdiction.  

Please let me state for the record that I helped facilitate the first contact between the international lawyers and the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, and I have on occasions drawn the attention of those concerned to legal sources on Venezuela’s positions that they might not have been aware of. I have thus been supportive throughout of Guyana’s approach to the World Court.

I therefore naturally wish Agent Greenidge, the Advisory Committee and the lawyers every success in this matter.

Perhaps I might have rendered a service in drawing attention to what I consider risks in the ICJ’s decision?  

I am content to leave the matter there for the time being.

Yours faithfully,

Bertrand Ramcharan