Guyana’s Ambassador to Suriname, Keith George has been designated for a new posting as Guyana’s High Commissioner to Canada, a posting that the diplomat is expected to take up within days.
This was confirmed by Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud. Additionally, he said that a successor for George in Suriname has already been identified.
George’s diplomatic career span over 29 years. He has worked in the Technical Cooperation and Political Departments of the Foreign Affairs Ministry. He was once the Director of the Frontier Department.
George’s posting comes just weeks after he was summoned to a meeting with the Surinamese Foreign Minister, Krishna Mathoera, regarding criticism from officials in Guyana of Suriname’s failure to grant fishing licences to Guyanese fishermen which has been a topical issue in recent times.
Email correspondence sent from high officials in the Surinamese Government to their Guyanese counterparts show that at one point Suriname had promised Guyana that the fishing licences for Guyanese to fish in Surinamese waters would have been issued on January 1, 2021.
In the email dated December 13, 2020, which was seen by this publication, Suriname’s Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Prahlad Sewdien had written to Guyana’s Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, informing him that the fishing licences would be issued from January 1 of the next year and that they would try to have preparations completed within two weeks.
The email also acknowledged the list of fishermen that Mustapha had sent to Sewdien, while also suggesting various actions that should be taken to complete the process of issuing the licences, under Surinamese law.
These suggestions included having the fishermen register their vessels in their own name and the appointment of a State-owned company to be their business partner and sign a “vesselbasing” agreement.
Meanwhile, Sewdien had also promised to track down the Surinamese middlemen who had been renting licences to Guyanese fishermen, at exorbitant prices. In the email, he asked Mustapha to have the fishermen mail copies of their licences.
“With that, it will be easier for us to trace the middlemen. These middlemen have registered the boats on their own names in the Fisheries Register at our Maritime Authority. We will have to get it changed,” Sewdien also said in the email.
In the past, the Surinamese Opposition has pushed the Government for clarity on the issuance of licences to Guyanese fishermen. It is understood that the issue was raised by Opposition Parliamentarian Melvin Bouva, in the Suriname National Assembly, on Tuesday.
Following a high-level meeting in Guyana during August 2021 between President Dr Irfaan Ali and Surinamese President Chandrikaprashad Santokhi, the two leaders had issued a joint press statement indicating that the age-old issue of licences for Guyanese fisherfolk to operate in Suriname’s territorial waters would be addressed.
These fishermen operate from the Corentyne Coast and have to use the Corentyne River to gain access to the Atlantic where they get most of their catch. The Corentyne River is considered Surinamese territory. Currently, the licences are issued to Surinamese businessmen at US$100 per year and rented to the Guyanese fisherfolk at US$3000 annually.
About 150 boats operate from the Number 66 Fisherman’s Co-op Society thus providing direct employment for about 800 fishermen. Additionally, some 200 persons are employed in providing services which include transportation, fish vending, and repairs to machinery and equipment.
Guyana has already said that it would be bringing this matter before the Caribbean Community (Caricom), since Suriname is also a member state. And comments by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo that Surinamese businesses could be met with reciprocal treatment in Guyana, were met by the Surinamese Government pleading in a statement for all parties to await a diplomatic resolution of the issue.
