Venetiaan wants to focus more on making Guyana-Suriname border irrelevant - De Ware Tijd Stabroek News December 2, 2000 The key to solving the border dispute between Guyana and Suriname could lie in the establishment of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy which would facilitate the free flow of capital, goods, services and people between member states. This is the view reportedly expressed by Suriname's President Ronald Venetiaan in a recent interview with the Surinamese daily, De Ware Tijd (DWT). According to DWT, President Venetiaan believes that his country should concentrate more on making the border between Suriname and Guyana irrelevant instead of trying to solve the dispute over it. In the interview Venetiaan stressed that his country and Guyana were members of CARICOM and that CARICOM was "already talking about free flow of goods, so the smuggling at the border is in fact an anachronism, and is not relevant anymore." President Venetiaan said that his administration wanted the implementation of Protocol II (Right of Establishment), one of the protocols which has amended the Treaty of Chaguaramas to bring into being the CARICOM Single Market and Economy. "We want free flow of goods, so who is talking about smuggling from Guyana to Suriname and from Suriname to Guyana. We want free flow of capital, free flow of - for the time being we still say - expert cadres, but it is about free flow of persons." According to the Surinamese President, the two countries have to be vigilant against crimes related to the free flow of goods, explaining that the check points for weapons and drugs at the Coppename bridge at the crossing of the Corentyne river and other locations had to be maintained. "But as far as the border between Suriname and Guyana is concerned, we will have to realize that this is a disappearing matter. So, to fight now about the location of the border - save the fact that you have to wage war with your neighbour - is something we do not want at all." President Venetiaan said that he hoped that both Suriname and Guyana were convinced of that. The question of the natural resources in the disputed area was, according to the Surinamese Head of State, a more complex issue, but he believes that a formula could be developed for allocating these resources and the profits from them. "Whatever the formulation may be for the destination of natural resources in the border area, I think that we really have to develop that well, but to fight, quarrel and so is not necessary." A date for the resumption of the talks between the two countries has not been set, but President Venetiaan believes that it is necessary for the two countries to stay in contact and talk with each other so that misunderstandings could be prevented. Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today