Int'l tribunal may be last resort if diplomacy fails - Insanally
Stabroek News
December 22, 2002
Minister of Foreign Affairs Rudolph Insanally said that his ministry is exploring every possible avenue of diplomacy to resolve the Suriname/Guyana territorial issue. He said that if that fails, bringing the matter to an international tribunal may be a last resort.
The minister made the disclosure at the ministry's media briefing on Friday at the Foreign Service Institute, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said that taking the matter to a tribunal is a distinct possibility. "We have to analyse the situation and see what the options are," he stated.
Both countries are parties to the UN Charter and therefore are obligated to seek diplomatic solutions first, the minister said.
Insanally noted too that recent talks with the Surinamese government had not yielded as much success as he would have hoped. "We have not made as much progress as anticipated. We have to be patient, so that hopefully we will see developments in the new year."
Meanwhile, Insanally announced that his ministry had been able to advance the UN Good Officer's process in Venezuela and that that country's foreign minister was to visit Guyana in January. There were also plans to further diplomatic activities in Japan, China and India, and outreach diplomacy in African countries.
"We are attempting to reconstruct our organisation to address the challenges of the new year," Insanally told the media. He said that for the coming year, the ministry intended to fill critical vacancies and to improve work capacity.
Computerisation of the ministry is to be completed in early 2003 with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
