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Aug 29, 2016 News
By: Kiana Wilburg
The need to protect the Caribbean Region and its people from transnational crime was one of the key issues raised by President David Granger last Friday.
He made this, among other statements, at the 19th Biennial Delegates Congress of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR). The Party Leader recalled that Guyana’s first Prime Minister, Linden Forbes Burnham was among the four founding signatories to the Treaty establishing the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on July 4, 1973.
Granger said that Guyana continues to be steadfast in its commitment to the Community and to support its policies and programmes agreed on at its meetings of Heads of Government.
He noted however that the PNCR, at this time, is particularly concerned about the dangers that transnational security threats pose to the Caribbean states.
The Party Leader reminded that the 22nd Meeting of the Conference of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community held in Nassau, Bahamas, from July 3-6, 2001 agreed to establish a Special Regional Task Force to analyze the fundamental causes of crime and security threats in the Region and to develop recommendations for consideration by Attorneys-General and Ministers responsible for National Security.
Granger said that the 18th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, held six years later in Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines from February 12-14, 2007, declared that “Security is the fourth pillar of the Community, given its ever increasing importance and cross-cutting fundamental nature.”
The President said that the designation of security as a pillar of the Community signals the overarching importance of security to the future of the integration process and to the survival of the member states.
Granger said that security remains a regional priority, fifteen years after the commissioning of that the Special Regional Task Force, which in their Report identified the causative factors responsible for the security threats facing the Caribbean. He said that those causative factors remain true today as they were then. He added that the threats identified in the Report remain undiminished.
The Party Leader said that the 24th Inter-sessional Meeting of the Conference of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community held in Port- Au- Prince, Republic of Haiti from February 18-19, 2013, adopted a Regional Crime and Security Strategy.
With this in mind, he said that the PNCR urges the government of Guyana to remain engaged with the Community and its security systems and agencies in order to craft a comprehensive strategy to protect the Region and its citizens from transnational crimes.
SECURED BORDERS
The matter of Guyana’s territory being claimed by Venezuela was also brought up at the forum on Friday.
There, Granger explained that Guyana’s Constitution defines the territory of the state. He said that Guyanese, today, inherited that territory from their progenitors. As such, the President said that Guyanese deserve to enjoy the God-given rights for which their ancestors struggled so that they can all have a good life.
Granger reminded that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, perversely, continues to claim nearly 160,000 km² of Guyana’s territory.
The historian said that this area represents nearly three-quarters of the nation’s land space, comprising five of Guyana’s ten regions – the Barima-Waini; Pomeroon-Supenaam; Cuyuni-Mazaruni; Potaro-Siparuni and the Rupununi.
He said, “The Venezuelan National Armed Forces, we must never forget, seized the 7-km² Ankoko Island in the Cuyuni River in October 1966, Guyana’s Independence year, and has remained in illegal occupation ever since.”
“The island is used as a military garrison to harass Guyanese miners and to engage in occasional acts of provocation against Guyanese citizens.”
The President stated that the Bolivarian Navy of Venezuela, notoriously, sent a Corvette into Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone on October 10, 2013 to expel an unarmed petroleum exploration vessel.
“The PNCR has always advocated the peaceful settlement of international controversies. Guyana’s pursuit of peace had led to the signing, together with Britain and Venezuela, of the Geneva Agreement in February 1966, three months before gaining Independence.”
Granger said that that Agreement required Guyana and Venezuela, in the event of disagreement over resolving the controversy between themselves, to refer the matter to the United Nations Secretary General.
“It is he who was mandated to choose one of the means for the ‘pacific settlement of disputes’ stipulated in Chapter VI of the Charter of the United Nations.”
The President said that Guyana’s assessment now is that, after 25 years, the ‘Good Offices Process’ has been exhausted. Granger said that it is only a fulfillment of the Geneva Agreement therefore to seek another peaceful option if one tried option failed to resolve the controversy.
Granger said, “Guyana has always acted in accordance with the terms of the Geneva Agreement. It continues to urge a peaceful and expeditious solution to the controversy arising from Venezuela’s contention that the 1899 Arbitral Award, under which Venezuela was granted over 13,000 km² of territory, was a nullity.”
“It was in search of a peaceful solution that I led Guyana’s team to meet the UN Secretary General, first during the Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community in Bridgetown, Barbados in July and, second, during the UN General Assembly meeting in New York in September, 2015.”
The President said that Guyana, in its engagements with the UN Secretary General, with the teams that he dispatched to Georgetown and, indeed, with many international leaders emphasized that the ‘Good Offices Process’ failed to resolve the controversy and that the time had come for another peaceful option to be pursued.
“The PNCR supports Guyana’s preference for a juridical settlement through recourse to the International Court of Justice. Venezuela’s Decrees Nos. 1.787 and 1.859 published on May 26, 2015 and July 7, 2015, respectively, posed specific threats to Guyana’s maritime zone. We denounced those threats.”
Granger said that the PNCR will continue to work within the Government to reinforce national security in order to protect the country’s patrimony in the face of threats.
He said that the Party will also continue to support the Government’s efforts to work with the Secretary General of the United Nations to seek a swift juridical solution to the spurious claim of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to our territory.
“Our government will continue to exercise vigilance over our territory and sea space.”
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