In the face of what he described as a ‘threat of war’ against Guyana by Venezuela, President David Granger is looking to bigger countries of the United Nations to ensure peace.“The United Nations was established in the wake of a war and with the aim of preventing war and when a neighbouring State sends a gunboat into waters of a friendly country, it is threatening war,” Granger told Guyanese media at the Yale Club in New York.
“We want the Caribbean to be a zone of peace and that’s what we would like the UN to help us guarantee; that the Caribbean will be a zone of peace and Guyana, a small State, the population of fewer than a million people, be allowed to develop its resources in peace–that’s my message.”
The President’s first bilateral meeting on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly was with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We have alerted the international community and we look to India particularly as a strong member of the Commonwealth to give us support and to lead the debate to ensure the security of small states is guaranteed.”
Once Venezuela agrees, the President said he looks forward to meeting with the Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro as arranged by the United Nations Secretary General Bank Ki Moon.
President Granger is attending his first UN summit since being elected last May. He is pushing for Mr Ban to recommend that the matter go to the International Court of Justice. As far as Guyana is concerned, the borders were decided by arbitration 116 years ago, and the move to the court would be to declare on the validity of that arbitral award.
In his first address to the UN General Assembly next Tuesday, Mr Granger said he plans to ask that bigger states help in guaranteeing the security of small states “to ensure world peace”.
During the month of September, President Granger said there has been a gradual build-up of armed forces on Guyana’s western frontier, including the deployment of tanks and missiles, and there has also been increase in the number of troops, “and the presence of armed patrol boats in the Cuyuni River, which of course is Guyana property”.
Lawful settlement
Granger insists that Guyana is interested in a lawful settlement to the controversy.
The President recently met with the Un Secretary General in Barbados and the two subsequently spoke on the phone. In addition, Mr Ban sent a delegation to Guyana and that delegation received the full cooperation of the government. Guyana’s case is that the UN Good Officers process, in which the UN appoints someone to mediate the controversy between the two countries, has failed and there is no more room for bilateral negotiations on the matter.
“We do not feel that bilateral negotiations at this time will bring about the kind of outcome which Guyana is interested in. “For our part, we have decided that after 50 years of harassment and provocation, we need to aim at a juridical settlement and we have indicated to the United Nations that we prefer to go to court,” Granger stated.
“The use of gunboats, the use of armed vehicles… the use of missiles- this is completely unknown in the relations between two states, so we don’t know where it will lead but as far as Guyana is concerned, we are interested in a peaceful and lawful resolution of the Venezuelan claim.
“In our view, it has been settled 116 years ago and we are prepared to go to court to vindicate the position Guyana has always taken–The Venezuelan claim has no substance, has no validity under international law,” Mr Granger stated.
Apart from the military buildup on the western frontier, Maduro has suspended the process towards the accreditation if the new Guyanese Ambassador to Caracas, Cheryl Miles.
Mr Granger said that while the decision to approve is at the discretion of Venezuela, “there are no grounds for the withholding of agreement. It is up to the State, accept or not to accept; right now they seem to have declined”.