The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has registered its concern with the Surinamese government that it should do nothing unseemly to embarrass the Guyana delegation to Carifesta VIII.

The cultural festival is being held in Paramaribo from August 24-30.

Reacting to a question from this newspaper during a media briefing on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Rudy Insanally told reporters, “We have made our concern known to the Surinamese authorities because Guyana will be sending a very large delegation to the Carifesta celebrations and we would hope not to be embarrassed by any unseemly act.”

Earlier this year Guyana issued a diplomatic note to the authorities in Paramaribo deploring a Surinamese government letter to the diplomatic missions and international organisations seeking recognition of a map in which the New River Triangle is shown as Suriname’s territory. A similar map was displayed at the launching of Carifesta VIII last year in Georgetown, at which Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy was present. In 2002, during President Bharrat Jagdeo’s state visit to Paramaribo, a similar map was displayed when he visited the state-owned Staatsolie facilities.

On a related issue, Insanally said that he had been informed that the Surinamese government had reacted favourably to representations made by his ministry, and was issuing fishing licences to Guyanese fishermen working in the Corentyne River.

The representations were made after Insanally said that he and Fisheries Minister Satyadeow Sawh had met with a group of fishermen to hear their complaints.

However, Insanally said that he had been told, and here it was hearsay, as the matter had not been brought to his attention officially, “there has been some harassment of fishermen recently. But to the best of my knowledge I have to say that in response to our note the Government of Suriname appears to have acted and responded to the request of the fishermen.”

About the meeting of the Guyana-Suriname Border Commissions, Insanally said that he was yet to settle with the Chairman of the Guyana Commission, Attorney General Doodnauth Singh SC, on a suitable date for the meeting. He explained that at the last meeting held in Georgetown there was an agreement that called for an exchange of information. It was agreed that the meeting should have been held last month for this purpose.

Following President Jagdeo’s state visit to Suriname last year, the two commissions were tasked with examining best practices around the world in the joint management of disputed maritime areas.

President Jagdeo and his Surinamese counterpart, President Ronald Venetiaan agreed to examine the possibility of joint management of the disputed maritime area pending a resolution of the boundary between the two countries.