In three years time!
… Granger says border controversy could end

By Neil Marks in Malta
PRESIDENT David Granger Sunday said Guyana was satisfied with the backing it has received from the Commonwealth on the border controversy with Venezuela, and sees this as part of an ongoing process by the United Nations that could see the matter resolved in three years.

“We do feel that the final communiqué gives full expression to the desires of Guyana government to have the territorial issue placed fully before the international community; it is embedded in the communiqué and we are very satisfied with the text of the communiqué specifically with regard to the territorial matter,” Mr Granger told the programme “The Public Interest” in Malta. The programme is produced by the Ministry of the Presidency and aired on state TV NCN.

In the communiqué, Commonwealth Heads “reaffirmed their unequivocal support for the maintenance of safeguarding of Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”. They “expressed their full support for the United Nations Secretary General to choose a means of settlement in keeping with the provisions of the Geneva Agreement of 1966 to bring the controversy to a definitive end”.

The Geneva Agreement was reached after Venezuela claimed that the 1899 Arbitral Award, which demarcated the countries’ borders was null and void. The Commonwealth Heads recognised that the Arbitral Award “definitely settled the land boundary between Guyana and Venezuela.”

President Granger said the statement from Commonwealth Heads is part of the process towards resolving the border controversy and he expressed thanks to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma for their roles in pushing the process.

Thanks to pressure from Guyana, Mr Granger said under the UN Secretary General, there is “intensified engagement by the UN to bring the controversy to an end. “There is, I would say, an intensified engagement, and we are moving much further along the road, much more quickly along the road,” Mr Granger stated.

“Guyanese can be satisfied that this year the process has moved closer to finality than it has for several years. If we maintain this pattern and this pace, I think they [Guyanese] can see the controversy coming to a satisfactory conclusion within three years.”

Meeting with Ban

On the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, President Granger was again able to meet with Mr Ban on the controversy.

Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge said that the objective of giving the controversy prominence in the international community “is to arrive at a point where Venezuela withdraws its claim, and/or Venezuela is restrained from trying to use threats or force to achieve borders that are different from the agreement it signed in 1899”.

Following recent statements and actions by Venezuela, President Granger indicated to Mr Ban that the process of talks has worn out and that it is time for a final legal settlement to Venezuela’s claim that the arbitral award of 1899 which settled the countries’ borders is null and void.

Guyana’s position was laid out when Granger met Mr Ban in the presence of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last September. Since then, the UN has sent two teams to Guyana to move the process further.

Guyana has accused Venezuela of a series of acts of aggression, starting with a Presidential Decree of June 1968.

The border controversy flared early this year when American firm Exxon Mobil announced that it had made a “significant” oil discovery.

After threatening the company, the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro issued a decree on May 26th this year, seeking to extend Venezuela’s land claim to also annex this country’s maritime space. Two years ago, the Venezuelans sent a naval ship into Guyana’s waters and seized a U.S.-chartered oil survey ship and escorted it to Margarita Island. In September, Guyanese authorities also said the Venezuela army was up the Cuyuni River. More recently, late last month, Canada-based mining company Guyana Goldfields said it had received an “unfounded” notification of possible legal action by Venezuela over its operations in Guyana.