Looks like when it comes to Suriname, we never learn. Sigh!! How many times are we gonna have them disrespect us with their “official” maps ostentatiously including our New River Triangle as theirs?? Wasn’t it just late last year that their Foreign Minister, Ramdhin, protested at Pressie simply mentioning that we were developing facilities there to serve our citizens?? Imagine the chutzpah!!! Do we have problems with them doing the same on their side of the Corentyne River that forms our boundary? No, siree Bob!!
And that’s because they – unlike us – DON’T accept the said boundary!! And it’s for this reason that, in ANY interaction with them, every Guyanese man jack has gotta be alert to their surreptitiously sneaking in their claim via their make-believe maps!! Remember, a few years ago – at some Conference of Forestry at the UN – they did the same thing?? And the oh-so-woke Guyanese researcher – who today wants us to stop drilling for oil!! – didn’t protest?? Your Eyewitness is astounded that the organizer of the business conference – Action Invest Caribbean Incorporated (AICI) – didn’t do what should be Standard Operating Procedure by now: directing that any map of the two countries should indicate that the New River Triangle belongs to Guyana!! It’s Chairman Anodyne’s statement afterwards was insulting!!
And if the Surinamese don’t like that, then it’s “see you later, alligators!!” – which clearly they are, if not crocodiles! not to acknowledge our sensibilities!! And what about the ambassador fella?? Your Eyewitness knows he’s new on the scene, but didn’t Tacuba Lodge brief him on the snake pit he was being posted to??
These Surinamese skin their teeth with us right now, but we can’t forget that they have been looking to snag the New River Triangle as long as the Venezuelans have been trying to do the same with our Essequibo!!
That’s right – as far back as 1899, when the Venezuelan Border was settled, the Dutch tried unsuccessfully to elbow their way in with the New River Triangle!! Then in 1962, when the Venezuelans tried a thing at the UN, up popped the Dutch/Surinamese like a cuckoo with their “claim!! And when, in 1969, the Venezuelans backed that uprising by some Amerindians in the Rupununi – which the GDF had to put down – the Surinamese actually sent in troops into the New River Triangle, where they started constructing an airstrip!!
After our brave GDF’s hastily assembled air wing drove them out, they found plans showing the Surinamese had planned to build a series of armed bases to keep the 15,000 square miles of our territory!!
Then came this nonsense about our development plans!! We NEVER should’ve explained anything to them. They read our desire for friendship as weakness!!
…our fishermen
If there were any doubts about how the Surinamese view us, those should’ve been cleared up also by how shabbily and disrespectfully they’ve dealt with their promise to issue fishing licences to our fishermen to fish in the Corentyne River, which they own. The Surinamese authorities have been regularly shipping our fishing boats for ages – and the owners have to pay through their noses to get them back.
As far back as on 26 November 2020, during a visit to Suriname, their President Santokhi promised our Pres Ali that his government would grant licences to our fishermen. Yet this had to be reiterated at a subsequent meeting in Georgetown between them at the end of 2021, that “arrangements would be put in place to facilitate the issuance of the 150 SK licences to Guyanese fishermen by 1 January 2022”. And three years later – nada!!
Now, your Eyewitness knows about illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, but Suriname just issued some licences to French Guiana; why not to us??
…Venezuelan infiltrators
Your Eyewitness is pleased that Government seemed to’ve awakened to the dangers of letting Venezuelans have unrestricted entry into our country. Not just the criminals could be coming in, but Mad Maduro’s fifth-column infiltrators!! Screen them!!
