Prime Minister Samuel Hinds has acknowledged the need for a treaty agreement between Guyana and Suriname in their battle to fight cross-border crime. He said that, as the relationship between the neighbouring countries develops, this issue will become more pressing.
“I think certainly we’ve identified it as an issue, and in time we would have to work to get the treaties between our two countries, so that people who have done wrong in one country and run to the other would not find refuge there, but would be returned to face their punishment,” Hinds told Guyana Times International in an interview at the time he was attending the opening ceremony of the first private hospital in Berbice. Over the years, criminals operating in both countries have taken advantage of lax border control to smuggle drugs and arms.
Only recently notorious pirate Kevin “Long Hair” Narine was nabbed in Suriname after escaping from the New Amsterdam Prison. Surinamese Khrishna Paul Doerga, who was serving jail time here on a fraud charge, also managed to escape to his country with the alleged assistance of prison officer Orlando Jaundoo from the NA Prison. Both men were nabbed in Suriname, but while Jaundoo was deported, Doerga has not been released by the Surinamese authorities to complete his prison term here.
Meanwhile, former police officer and now attorney, Patrice Henry, who was also present at the event, said that Doerga’s case exposes the weakness in the two countries’ crime- fighting cooperation. According to Henry, the two nations share a bilateral agreement, but not an official treaty document. Currently the arrangement facilitates the deportation of wanted Guyanese back home, but not the deportation of Surinamese wanted for crimes committed in Guyana.
Henry stated that the Doerga issue is an eye-opener for authorities and lawmakers here, because at this time nothing could be done to him, since he is in Suriname.
The story of Doerga dates back to June 27, 2001 when he operated as a rice miller and was charged for obtaining by false pretence 4,222 bags of paddy from rice farmer Girjawantie Ganesh of No 60 Village, Corentyne. The total value of the paddy was Gy$6.3 million. Doerga was accused of writing the farmer two checks that bounced. He appeared before Magistrate Khrisendat Persaud at the No 51 Magistrate’s Court, and his attorney Mursaline Bacchus was able to convince the court to grant him bail in the sum of Gy$300,000.
There was a mix-up with the dates in relation to the next hearing of the case, and Doerga stopped attending court. It was not until January 8, 2003 that Magistrate Persaud sentenced Doerga in absentia to three years’ imprisonment. The police arrested him on January 17 this year and escorted him to the New Amsterdam Prison.
In June, he was taken out of the New Amsterdam Prison compound by the prison officer under the guise of fixing a sewing machine at the recreational centre for prisoners, but was taken to Suriname. Charles Roberts, the head of the Constabulary of the New Amsterdam Mayor and Town Council, was charged for aiding and abetting Doerga in his escape from prison.
Roberts and Jaundoo have since been granted bail separately, and are fighting their cases while Doerga walks as a free man in his country. On the issue of trade between Guyana and its eastern neighbour and the overall development in Berbice, PM Hinds disclosed that with Region Six set to form a major connection with Suriname, he is very pleased with the development taking place there. “I think Berbice is growing … there has been a different feeling. I think when you come over to Berbice…I think the bridge has added a very important feature now… people can go from Georgetown to Corentyne and back very easily, so that increases the linkage.”
