— by forging definitive resolution on Guyana/Venezuela border controversy
THE forging of a definitive resolution regarding Guyana’s border concerns with neighbouring Venezuela could be a part of the legacy which United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon can leave behind.This is according to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo,who is performing the functions of President.
The Prime Minister made the remarks after issuing a call for solidarity from legal luminaries from across the Commonwealth on Guyana’s border matter with Venezuela.
Prime Minister Nagamootoo was at the time addressing participants at this year’s Commonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’ Association (CMJA) conference which commenced on Monday morning at the Marriot Hotel, Kingston, Georgetown.
Prime Minister Nagamootoo told reporters that Guyana expects that the UN Secretary General, who will demit office soon, can advance the proposal that the border controversy be sent to the world court.
“We are demanding a judicial settlement of this matter, it is (a) matter of the rule of law, the international rule of law,” he said.
Earlier, he told the gathering, which included other Government officials and visiting Trinidad and Tobago President, Anthony Carmona, that he was addressing the participants in the absence of President David Granger.
President Granger is currently attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York,where he plans to push for a juridical settlement of the issue.
Prime Minister Nagamootoo told the CMJA conference participants of Guyana’s contention that Venezuela’s aggressive stance “haunts us”.
He said after 50 years of Independence, Guyana deserves a better life.
“At last,Guyana is on the threshold of an exciting future,” he said, noting that the country has proposed to the United Nations a juridical settlement.
He said that he raised the issue at Monday’s meeting,since those present represent “a wide cross section of (the) Commonwealth jurisdiction and for a cause we seek your solidarity”.
Guyana’s border controversy with Venezuela dates back to over a century, with renewed and forceful claims by Venezuela after the American oil firm Exxon Mobil announced a giant oil find offshore Guyana last year.
With the oil discovery approximately 120 miles offshore Guyana, Venezuela extended its land claim and sought this country’s Atlantic front. This decree was deemed by Guyana’s President as “obnoxious”.
It was back in 1966, on the eve of Guyana’s Independence from Britain, that Venezuela claimed that the 1899 arbitral award,which defined the countries’ borders,was null and void.
That triggered the so-called Geneva Agreement, which mandated the United Nations Secretary General to dictate a mechanism to settle the controversy as provided for in Chapter VI of the Charter of the United Nations.
The then UN Secretary General selected the Good Officers Process as one of the specific means available under the Charter. However, President Granger contended last year that after 25 years, the Good Officers Process has been exhausted.
In July this year,he expressed hope that the outgoing United Nations Secretary General will declare a move to the International Court of Justice within a four- month timeframe, to settle once and for all the border controversy with Venezuela.
