Logger arrested, deported after traveling along Corentyne River

Logger arrested, deported after traveling along Corentyne River
Kaieteur News, 10 April 2008

By Melissa Johnson
CORRIVERTON, CORENTYNE - A Guyanese logger was reportedly arrested
and deported by the Surinamese authorities for not being in possession
of a valid travel document as he traveled along the Corentyne River.
This act has sparked anger among some sections of the Corentyne.
Businessman Ganesh Singh owns two logging concessions, one at Cow
Falls some 139 miles up the Corentyne River, and the other at Wanatabo
some 200 miles further along.
On his return to Guyana, the man related that on Friday morning he
took three forestry officers up to the Wanatabo Forest Resource to
undertake verification in order to commence operation of his logging
concession.
"This concession has now been transformed into a timber sale
agreement. So the procedure is that you have to have the forestry
officer verify it before you can start working."
It was while they were returning home the following day that the
incident took place. "Me and my manager, Outram Prasad, left Wanatabo
to travel to Cow Falls. On my way I stopped to fish with my rod within
the Cow Falls concession area that is at Matawai (in the vicinity of
Wanatabo).
"While fishing, the Suriname police approached me with their boat -
about eight policemen with guns. They asked me for my passport. I said
to them I have no passport with me because I have been traveling for
the past 35 years to the same concession without having to use a
passport.
They said to me that I am on Suriname water and as such I am illegal
and they would have me arrested and taken to Suriname.
They took me to the pontoon that they were pushing. It was some
pontoon they had seized from some Surinamese."
He recalled that when he got on the vessel he saw five of his workers
on the said pontoon along with the boat they were using to travel to
another location in the vicinity of the Iguana Island area.
The businessman said that later the said Monday evening the forestry
officers were on their way back from Wanatabo and they stopped upon
seeing him.
"I had their belongings on my boat like their material and clothing.
When they stopped alongside me they were ordered to go on the pontoon
and the Suriname police asked them to produce their passports.
They told them it was their first trip up the Corentyne River and that
they were not told by their superiors that they had to have travel
documents to travel on the Corentyne River."
According to him, the officers produced their identification badges
and were allow to go free.
"That was my only way of sending a message out for my people to know
what happened to me. They kept me on board the pontoon Monday night
with the other workers.
The pontoon happened to be grounded on a rock so they couldn't go
further so they had no other alternative than to leave the pontoon
behind the next day (Tuesday).
Two Suriname police officers went with my boat and my Manager and me
to Aporea Police Station in West Suriname."
The businessman and his workers were later placed in the lock-ups at
Nickerie. "My workers complained to me that they were badly beaten.
This morning (Wednesday) about 10:00h they sent us to South Drain and
the seven of us were deported using the Canawaima to Guyana about
11:00 hours."
Back home, the immigration authorities handed them over to the
Springlands Police Station where statements were taken.
Ganesh Singh feels the matter should be looked into by those in
authority. "I would have to take this matter to the Foreign Affairs
Ministry in Guyana. What the Surinamese police are saying is that
anybody they find in the Suriname territory on the river without their
passport stamped they would hold them as illegal."
President of the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce, David Subnauth,
condemned the action. "This is nonsense! Guyanese have been using the
Corentyne River from the beginning of time to do their business and to
go to their lands on the Corentyne River.
We use the river to bring down sand, logs, agricultural produce and to
go up to this resort and to Orealla, Siparuta and further up. We were
never harassed."
He said this incident with the logger is the beginning of a difficult
situation. "Unless this is immediately tackled by our Foreign Affairs
people it might escalate to a situation where we Guyanese cannot use
the river. This would pose tremendous difficulties for many of us."
For those living along the river he asked, "Do they have to get a
passport too?"
Incidentally, Wanatabo was the location where the Joint Services
destroyed an illegal airstrip and found an aircraft.