Latest update March 24th, 2025 7:05 AM
We will detain any vessel in breach of the 1981 law
— Suriname Ambassador
Suriname’s Ambassador to Guyana, Manorma Soeknandan, said yesterday that the detention of the GuySuCo leased vessel, Lady Chandra I, was not a show of force or a direct attack against Guyana’s right to use the Corentyne River.
Suriname detained the Lady Chandra I, last week, towed the vessel to a Suriname port, and locked up the crew until the owner paid a fine. The vessel was heading to Skeldon to uplift a cargo of sugar destined for a foreign port.
Suriname’s Ambassador to Guyana, Manorma Soeknandan
Ambassador Soeknandan said that the vessel was in breach of a law enacted in 1981 that stipulates that any vessel above 50 gross tonnes in the Corentyne must be escorted by a pilot attached to the Suriname Maritime Department. “The vessel in question weighed 375 gross tonnes.”
She said that regardless of the registration of the vessel, “be it Chinese or American or Surinamese, the vessel would be detained once its captain ignores the use of a pilot once the vessel weighs above 50 gross tonnes.”
When asked about the application of this law in the past, Ambassador Soeknandan directed the reporters to the archives. However, there has been no such arrest in the Corentyne in recent memory.
When a reporter pointed this out to the Ambassador, she insisted that there should be some research.
In 1977, during talks between the two countries, Guyana’s Foreign Minister Fred Wills granted Suriname exclusive rights to the river and agreed that the boundary lay at the high water mark on the Guyana side.
The law, which the Ambassador said was enacted in 1981, will apply to any vessel, even Suriname-registered vessels, according to the envoy.
However, President Bharrat Jagdeo told the local press that he was unaware of any such law and that he had examined every note of contention between the two countries over the years.
He said that the Suriname action has come in the wake of the United Nations Law of the Sea Tribunal that settled the off-shore boundary dispute between Guyana and Suriname.
Ambassador Soeknandan said that the detention is not about using the river and that it is not about a test of diplomacy. Guyana had dispatched diplomatic notes in the wake of the detention of the vessel.
She said that someone needed to explain the diplomatic effort if the vessel detained had been a Surinamese-registered vessel.
And reacting to the charge that her country used force, the Ambassador said that the military was never involved in the detention. “They do not have the authority,” she said.
“The detention was done by the maritime authorities and the police.”
Guyana is, however, not satisfied with the state of affairs and, according to Ambassador Soeknandan, the two countries are still talking with a view to resolving any contentious issues.
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