GUYANA — A fishing-vessel monitoring system is being implemented in Suriname in the aftermath of the recent pirate attack on 20 Guyanese fishermen, as that country grapples to regulate its fishing industry, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan said, the Guyana Chronicle reported on May 10.
“Suriname’s Minister of Justice and Police, Stuart Getrouw, noted that there will be immediate setting up of regulations for the fisheries sector which is dominated by Guyanese… what is being proposed is that checkpoints be created to know who went out to fish, actual persons going into the boats, from where they went out, their identities and so on,” Ramjattan said at a press conference Wednesday at his Brickdam, Georgetown office.
Following the attack in which 12 fishermen are still missing, Surinamese police have appealed to persons to go to them with their identification cards or passports if they believe their relatives are victims.
Ramjattan said in Suriname, the fishing business was closed after the massacre. Fishermen there, he said, are scared but the Suriname government is expected to re-open the shores during this month after ministerial decisions are made.
He explained that Guyana and Suriname are collaborating with intelligence- sharing and police reports, while various discussions on issues of security are being discussed, even as he laments the vicious attack.
