UN Good Officer to meet border facilitators
by Linda Rutherford
NEWLY-appointed United Nations `Good Officer' in the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy, Mr Oliver Jackman, is to meet for the first time both the Venezuelan and Guyanese facilitators either late next month or early May. The purpose of their meeting, slated for New York, is to review not only the outcome of his visits to Caracas and Georgetown but also the status of the `Good Office' process, Jackman said at a press briefing yesterday at the Foreign Ministry here. He did not read from a prepared statement and moved into questions and answers. A former journalist, Jackman said he holds the view that press conferences are about answering questions. The veteran Barbadian diplomat, who wrapped up a hectic two-day round of talks with the government and concerned parties here yesterday, said he will be briefing UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Anan, as is his mandate under the terms of his appointment, following his meeting with the facilitators. While here he met the social partners including the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the heads of the Joint Services and the four parliamentary parties. He said the position of the political parties on the issue, outside of the one in office, is "absolutely unanimous", in that they, like the government, consider the 1899 adjudication final. That adjudication settled the current border between the two countries. Jackman said they supported the government fully on this, regardless of any nuances they may have in various strategies and tactics. "They are solidly behind the government in that regard", he said. He declined comment on the tenets of his discussion with the social partners with regard to the proposed Beal Aerospace spaceport agreement with the government, on the grounds that it was unethical to do so. Preferring to deal with what was told him by the government, Jackman said it has expressed concern about statements emanating from Venezuela on the grounds that these can adversely affect the confidence of the investors and the possibility of increasing investment in the area under dispute. He was also asked by the Venezuelan government to make representation on their behalf, which he did, to the Guyana government concerning the proposed Beal project. Jackman paid a courtesy call on President Bharrat Jagdeo at his home at Herdmanston House yesterday. He had what he termed a `one-on-one' with People's National Congress (PNC) leader, Mr Desmond Hoyte. He also had "long and useful conversations" with his host, Foreign Minister, Mr Clement Rohee. Jackman came here directly from Venezuela where, according to him, his meetings were almost exclusively with the government and governmental agencies. He said from the little he saw of President Hugo Chavez, he came across as being a very warm and passionate person and one who obviously reads his briefs. Recalling a statement Chavez had made soon after taking office, in which he was very critical of the `McIntyre Process' - after Jackman's predecessor who held the position of `Good Officer' for going on nine years - Jackman said he has now made a complete about face. Jackman said he believes this change of position has come about because Chavez has since sought and listened to advice. He jocularly gave as the reason he did not meet with the political parties as he did here, a passing joke among Venezuelans that this was a "physical impossibility" since they all seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth after Chavez' landslide victory at the last polls. He hopes, however, to make it a point of meeting them when next he is in Venezuela. Asked whether Chavez's recent pronouncement that he intended to reopen the border issue makes his job any harder than it already is, Jackman said he is aware of only one statement made by the Venezuelan leader, which was that Venezuela maintains its position that the Paris Award of 1899 was null and void. This, he said, was in response to a question from the media and was made in his presence last Friday. He said, however, that he did hear in passing that Chavez had made some statement on radio, but seeing that he had no knowledge of it, he could not comment on it. Responding to the query as to where the Good Officer process is headed and how he perceived his role, Jackman said, "you have to give me some time", since he is after all "the new kid on the block". On a more serious note, he said, "I have not yet been able to put down on a piece of paper what I think I should be doing over the next year or so, because I don't yet have enough information or a feel for the details and trends of what has gone before". He said, however, that he hopes that by the end of his meeting with the facilitators he will be able "to sketch out for the Secretary-General some kind of a work programme or vision as to what may or may not be possible". Jackman said he took on the job because he thinks that processes of maintenance of peace are important and that like former British Prime Minister, the late Sir Winston Churchill, he feels that "jaw, jaw is better than war, war". He said, too that he is also "long enough in the tooth" to know that these processes inevitably take time, which is what he has aplenty now that he is retired. The two countries have referred Venezuela's longstanding claim to the Essequibo to the UN Secretary General who is to recommend a mutually satisfactory resolution to the border controversy to the two countries.
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