Former Foreign Affairs Minister Rashleigh Jackson has lent his voice to the recent pronouncement by Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Ban Ki-moon on the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy, saying Guyana needs to stay the course and see what fruitful resolution will be had.
Former Foreign Affairs Minister Rashleigh Jackson
Jackson, who served as Permanent Representative of Guyana at the United Nations back in 1982, said while Guyana wanted the matter to go directly to the ICJ, it still respects the ruling of the UN, since there is need for a swift resolution.
Jackson stressed the point by the UN, which stated that if the Officer Process does not work within one year, the matter will be taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
“The court is the final arbitrator. If there is no solution for the year, let’s go to the court. I think we should work with that,” he told Guyana Times in an invited comment.
The Good Officer Process was initiated in 1989 following the expiration of the Protocol of Port of Spain in 1982. That Protocol had provided an initial period of 12 years during which Venezuela had undertook not to assert any claim to sovereignty over the Essequibo Region and for Guyana to assert no claim to Venezuelan territory.
Guyana has consistently maintained that the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award represented a full and final settlement of the land boundary with Venezuela.
The border issue was reopened in 1949 when an American jurist presented to Venezuela a memorandum written in 1944 by the Official Secretary of the US/Venezuela delegation in the Tribunal of Arbitration, Severo Mallet-Prevost that surmised a political deal between Russia and Britain based on the private behaviour of the judges.
Meanwhile, President David Granger on Thursday evening, praised the work of the Foreign Service Officers and other support staff as an “outstanding aspect of Guyana’s public service” and lauded their role in securing a decision by the outgoing UN Secretary-General to send the issue of the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy to the ICJ at the end of 2017 if the Good Offices Process do not yield results by that time.
Speaking at the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s annual dinner and Christmas party, the President said that this is a moment of relief for all the people who have been working hard to ensure an end to the claim on Guyana’s territory.
“Last Friday we heard a very important announcement, which is perhaps one of the brightest parts in our 50-year history of Independence, that the matter of the territorial controversy will be taken to the court…I think it is a moment of joy, not of boasting, but a moment of relief to the people, who have worked so hard,” he said.
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge, at the Ministry’s Christmas party delivered awards to six staff members for long and dedicated service to the Ministry, including Deputy Chief of Protocol, Marion Herbert, who has served within the ministry for 27 years, Bibi Bacchus, a Personnel staff who has served for 32 years, from accounts Hollie Munroe, who has been with the Ministry for 44 years, Michael Brotherson and James Lewis from Registry for 27 years of service.
