Piracy continues to engage Gov’t attention - Minister Persaud

Georgetown, GINA, November 14, 2007.

The recent increase in incidents of piracy and its impact on the livelihood of fishermen and the marine fishing industry continues to engage Government’s attention and efforts are being made at various levels to tackle the situation.
            This is according to Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud, who noted that based on initial reports the recent incidents of piracy may have taken place mostly in the Surinamese waters.
A release issued today by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that relevant Ministries are working collaboratively to develop concrete proposals with the aim of eliminating piracy and to bring justice to the perpetrators of pirate attacks.
“As soon as the proposal are finalised, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be approaching its Surinamese counterparts on the establishment of a mechanism of cooperation to counter piracy activities in the eastern waters of Guyana,” the release further stated.
Minister Persaud said representatives of various agencies and senior officials of the law enforcement authority are collaborating on the matter and discussing various interventions to tackle piracy.
Meanwhile, he disclosed that the bodies, which were washed-up on the Corentyne Coast and were later identified as three of six missing fishermen, will be exhumed tomorrow by the relevant State agency. This is being done based on requests made by the fishermen’s families.   
Additionally, the Ministry of Agriculture is coordinating other assistance for the families and is making representation for other support such as counselling from the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security and allocation of house lots by the Ministry of Housing and Water.
An assessment is ongoing by officials from the Agriculture Ministry to determine other assistance that may be required while there are plans to use resources from the fishermen’s fund to give other support to the victims’ families.
Earlier initiatives by Government to deal with piracy include drafting of legislation to make the crime a non-bailable offence with sentences that are equal to murder.
An anti-piracy plan was also prepared by the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Coastguard to make them better able to act as a deterrent, to provide a rapid response capability to any act of piracy and is expected to ensure greater collaboration and information sharing among stakeholders.
Efforts are being made to develop a stronger communication system that will include Global Positioning System (GPS) that will help the response unit to identify the location of a vessel that is indicating a distress signal. Additional resources were allocated by Government to develop this system which has already been designed.

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