Rohee rejects `Trojan Horse' claims
FOREIGN Minister, Mr Clement Rohee, yesterday slammed the daily Stabroek News for "highly speculative" claims on the border controversy with Venezuela which can mislead the public. He said an editorial in the newspaper yesterday, headed `Trojan Horse' not only was a juxtaposition of two separate issues but "highly speculative" to boot, all in the interest of misleading the public. He left the Heads of Overseas Missions retreat under way in Georgetown to set the record straight at an emergency press conference aired live from the GTV studios. "I note with some concern the attempt by the Stabroek News editorial of today's date...to juxtapose two stories", he said. Reading from a prepared statement, Rohee noted that the stories at reference were reports of his proposed two-day visit to Venezuela, beginning tomorrow, and an alleged proposal from his Venezuelan counterpart, Mr Jose Vicente Rangel to jointly exploit some of the natural resources to be found in the Essequibo region. Contending that the two issues had been deliberately fused "to create, unfortunately, a highly speculative editorial on yet another aspect of Guyana's relations with Venezuela", Rohee said that the reality, as announced by the Foreign Ministry, was that it was Rangel who invited him to visit and not the other way around as was implied. He listed the three definitive areas slated for discussion as: * the setting of a draft agenda for the meeting of the Presidents of Guyana and Venezuela at the upcoming meeting in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia; * arrangements for the meeting between himself and Rangel and UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan next month in New York during the annual UN General Assembly, and * a review of the progress of the Guyana/Venezuela High Level Bilateral Commission. "Contrary to the impression conveyed by the Stabroek News", he said, "the question of joint exploitation of resources at land or at sea in relation to Venezuela and Suriname respectively, has been around ever since the early years of Guyana's Independence". He noted, however, "that insofar as the agreed agenda" was concerned, this particular matter was not open to discussion. He said he further wished "to state categorically that the Government of Guyana has not received any proposal from the Government of Venezuela on the question of joint exploitation of some of the resources of the Essequibo". Stabroek News suggests that the proposal "may have already been communicated to the Guyana Government". It goes on to not only explain the fundamental difference between exploiting a seabed and a land resource, but to argue how joint exploitation, "even if subject to the most careful drafting of legal instruments, will dilute Guyana's sovereignty over the territory concerned". Stressing that no Memorandum of Understanding for environmental agreement exists between Venezuela and Guyana, Rohee said: "I can publicly confirm that no such proposal or Memorandum of Understanding exist". Pressed later into saying whether Guyana was willing to consider proposals from Venezuela for joint exploitation in the Essequibo, Rohee said: "As I have said in the statement, this is not a new matter; it has been around for a long time and it has been taking different forms". "I hope that the Stabroek News will desist from misleading the general public into believing (i) that there is a proposal to enter into an agreement on joint exploitation of some of the resources of the Essequibo with Venezuela and (ii) that there is a Memorandum of Understanding with Venezuela", he said. Rohee was accompanied at the conference by Information Minister, Mr Moses Nagamootoo and Guyana's Ambassador to Venezuela, Mr Bayney Karran. In a statement yesterday, the Foreign Ministry also denied a Stabroek News report that Guyana's Ambassador to the European Union, Dr Havelock Brewster had resigned. It said that contrary to the newspaper's report, the Guyana Government "has reassigned Ambassador Brewster to Washington to serve at an international financial institution as its representative." Brewster has served Guyana well during his tenure in Brussels, it said. The ministry also denied that First Secretary at the Brussels Embassy, Mr Samuel Mann chose to resign rather than return home. "...the fact is that Mr Mann chose to go off to pursue private studies without the permission of the ministry rather than return to Guyana", it said. It said the newspaper also incorrectly reported that the public encounter with Heads of the country's Overseas Missions this week was the first. The Foreign Ministry recalled that a highly successful public forum was held in Georgetown in 1996 at the end of the last Heads of Mission retreat.  Follow the goings-on in Guyana
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