No further word has been had on the four hijackers who escaped in Brazil after commandeering a local aircraft on Wednesday except that the Brazilian Embassy in Georgetown was awaiting a further report from its law enforcement authorities.

Meanwhile, the Guyana Police Force has enlisted the help of Interpol, headquartered in France, police spokesman Assistant Superintendent of Police David Ramnarine told Stabroek News. He said that the police had forwarded all information relevant to the case to Interpol.

On Wednesday, a 13-seater Trans Guyana aircraft, piloted by Captain Zaul Ramotar was hijacked by four armed South Americans and commandeered to a remote area in Brazil where the men escaped. The pilot and eight other passengers, held hostage for a number of hours, were allowed to fly back to Guyana, but not before they were intercepted by the Brazilian military.

Private aircraft operators have expressed concerns about the state of security on the Guyana/Brazil border in view of the hijacking of the aircraft from Lethem to Brazil and other previous incidents. Questioned on who was responsible for local aviation security, Civil Aviation Director, Jeffrey Pierre, told Stabroek News that it fell under the ambit of the Transport and Hydraulics Ministry, of which his department was a part. Pierre was to present a report on the hijacking to Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Anthony Xavier, yesterday. Ajay Baksh, Xavier's Public Relations consultant told Stabroek News that the report would be shared with the media.

Baksh also said that officials of the Ministry of Transport and Hydraulics would meet their counterparts in the Ministry of Home Affairs and stakeholders on Monday to look at the issue of enhanced security.

Expressing the "fervent hope" that the law enforcement authorities would apprehend the four hijackers, Operations Director of Trans Guyana Airways, Captain Roy Jainandan, told Stabroek News in a telephone interview that the company was fortunate that all turned out well in the end.

On Thursday, Brazilian Ambassador to Guyana Ney Do Prado Dieguez had said that the Brazilian authorities were on the heels of the hijackers, but could not release any information for fear it might jeopardise investigations.

The names of the men were taken from travel documents they possessed by the local immigration authorities when they crossed the border into Guyana, and a senior police official said it was something which "we can go on".

Shortly after the hijacking, President of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana, Gerry Gouveia, told the media that the incident was of grave concern. He noted that in spite of increased security at the Ogle Aerodrome and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri since his own aircraft was hijacked from Kwebanna and taken to Colombia in 1996, it was now obvious that security needed to be even tighter. The incident, he said, had changed the focus of aviation security especially for border locations.

Of particular concern, he said, was Orinduik next to the Guyana/Brazil border where aircraft often sat on the ground awaiting local and foreign tourists who travel to the tourist destination, the Orinduik Falls.

He opined that the private aircraft owners would have to enhance their own security system and the national security system would have to be beefed up. He noted that there were airstrips throughout the country, some with no measure of security in place.

He said that the members of the Private Aircraft Owners Association would have to sit down with the relevant security services and come up with some serious contingency plans to deal with the issue.

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister, Manzoor Nadir, told the media that he had been in discussions with Gouveia on the issue and would raise these issues with his ministerial colleagues.