However, Central Executive member, Mr. Raphael Trotman has accused the Government of "allowing...relations to degenerate to the point where bilateral negotiations cannot solve our differences".

Trotman, at the party's regular weekly press conference at its Sophia, Georgetown headquarters yesterday, noted that Suriname, Guyana's neighbour to the east, had before issued documents depicting part of Guyana's territory as belonging to it.

One such example, he pointed, out was the map on the Suriname Airways ticket cover being circulated in Guyana.

Although there was an apology and a retraction, Suriname is now again taking a position which is in breach of international law and convention, and one which Guyanese would obviously be annoyed about, Trotman, a lawyer, said.

He noted that since June 2000, two Surinamese gun boats cost the country investment, perhaps in the sum of many millions of U.S. dollars, when they evicted the Canadian oil company CGX Energy Incorporated, which was exploring offshore Guyana.

The exploration stirred a dispute over the Suriname-Guyana border and chilled relations between the two neighbours.

"We have recapitulated to Paramaribo and continue to do so, and they continue to heap scorn on the Guyanese people", Trotman argued.

He, however, believes that there is always a place for diplomacy and said that his party would always be supportive of any initiative, once it is informed by the best minds and the best strategies, which could bring about a resolution to the problem.

The party therefore has no difficulty with persons from the PNC/R forming part of the team to try to get past the CGX gridlock, he said.

Trotman noted that the party had before taken such a position when it was asked to join as parliamentarians with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to resolve the border issue.

He further stated that the party also had no difficulty serving in the National Security and Border Committee, which had been established by President Bharrat Jagdeo and the late PNC/R Leader, Mr. Desmond Hoyte.

"We feel that this Government is unwilling or incapable of doing what is necessary by allowing Suriname to publicly issue maps claiming part of Guyana's territory," Trotman said.

Adding to his comments, another PNC/R Central Executive member, Ms. Clarissa Riehl noted that documents circulating on Suriname's claim to Guyana's territory were also in Caribbean diaries, which surfaced in Parliament, and parliamentarians, in protest, tore out the offending pages.

Riehl said the Government, from that time, was sensitised about the issue and therefore, should have taken it in hand years ago and let it once and for all be quashed.

Failing to take those earlier steps has given the Surinamese a chance to become bolder.