Parliament to ratify US ‘shiprider’ agreement
Stabroek News
January 7, 2003
The so-called `Shiprider’ maritime agreement with the United States is to come before the National Assembly for ratification when it next meets.
The motion to ratify the Maritime Law Enforcement Agreement (MLEA) was tabled at the last sitting of the National Assembly last month.
The agreement was tabled in November 2001 for Parliament’s information after being signed by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon and US Ambassador Ron Godard earlier in the year.
Foreign Minister, Rudy Insanally told Stabroek News last week that the motion should have been scheduled for debate on December 30, when Parliament was originally to have met but the sitting was postponed because of the death of the Leader of the Opposition, Desmond Hoyte.
He said that ratification of the MLEA would allow the relevant agencies in Guyana and the US to initiate a programme of co-operation aimed at the suppression of drug trafficking activities in and over the territorial waters of the US and Guyana. He added that there might be some need for adjustment of the domestic law to accommodate the provisions of the agreement.
The MLEA supersedes the Surveillance Agreement which the two governments signed in 1996 but which was never operationalised. The Surveillance Treaty called for the establishment of an electronic listening post manned by US servicemen at the Timehri airport and for US airplanes to pursue aircraft suspected of carrying narcotics through Guyana’s airspace with prior approval whenever it was possible to provide prior notification.
Once both governments complete the ratification process, they will then be required to establish a combined law enforcement `shiprider’ programme and each party may designate a co-ordinator.
Under the agreement, among other things, the two governments must appoint `shipriders’ who would be armed with the requisite powers of arrest. Then Guyanese `shipriders’ can embark on US law enforcement vessels; authorise pursuit by US law enforcement vessels of suspect vessels fleeing into or over Guyanese territory; authorise US law enforcement vessels to conduct counter-drug patrols; and enforce the laws of Guyana in Guyana’s waters or seaward therefrom in the exercise of hot pursuit.
Similarly US `shipriders’ would be able to embark on Guyanese law enforcement vessels, advise and assist local law enforcement officials in the boarding of vessels to enforce local laws, and seaward of Guyana’s territorial sea, the laws of the US; and authorise Guyanese vessels on which they are stationed to assist in the enforcement of US laws seaward of Guyana’s waters.
Other CARICOM states that have signed similar agreements with the US include Barbados, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
Following the signing the agreement, Guyana was provided with a range of resources including four 40-foot motor lifeboats from the US Coast Guard, which arrived here around mid-year. They have since been commissioned and put in service by the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard. (Patrick Denny)
