Litigation at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), is the only legal option in the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy. Any
further United Nations mediation would not only prejudice Guyana, but
contravene established dispute resolution processes.
Caracas-based news outfit, El Universal, on Thursday reported that the Government of Venezuela had issued a communiqué urging the Government of Guyana to, “settle the territorial dispute through a valid legal instrument in force, the 1966 Geneva Agreement and international law”.
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| Food shortages increasing Venezuela's desperation to annex territory from neighbouring Guyana. |
Caracas-based news outfit, El Universal, on Thursday reported that the Government of Venezuela had issued a communiqué urging the Government of Guyana to, “settle the territorial dispute through a valid legal instrument in force, the 1966 Geneva Agreement and international law”.
Clearly, from the diagram above, Guyana must vehemently lobby against any moves by Venezuela to pressure the United Nations Secretary General to resort to anything that even remotely resembles mediation, because that could amount to suicide for Guyana. Again, you cannot have mediation when you already had arbitration. The horse has already left the stable, President Maduro.
There is no way that two parties, having gone the route of arbitration, which resulted in a ruling that both parties originally abided by, as is the legal requirement, can now go back to mediation. The mediation stage has passed, leaving only one option, which is litigation, not to decide who gets Essequibo, but to judicially affirm that the 1899 award of Essequibo to Guyana was proper, and is legally binding.
There is no way that two parties, having gone the route of arbitration, which resulted in a ruling that both parties originally abided by, as is the legal requirement, can now go back to mediation. The mediation stage has passed, leaving only one option, which is litigation, not to decide who gets Essequibo, but to judicially affirm that the 1899 award of Essequibo to Guyana was proper, and is legally binding.
Any
conflict resolution expert would agree that the stages of settling disputes
are: Negotiation, then Mediation, then Arbitration. When parties decide to go
to arbitration, they are agreeing to be bound by the ruling of the arbitral tribunal. Litigation can be used if the parties fail to resolve the dispute
through mediation or can be used to affirm that the parties are bound by the
decision of the arbitral tribunal.
Guyana’s
position is, and should continue to be, that the only option is to have the
International Court of Justice pronounce on the 1899 UN arbitral award which
confirmed Essequibo as Guyana’s territory.
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| The International Court of Justice based at The Hague, Netherlands. |
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Maritime Delimitation in the Indian Ocean
(Somalia v. Kenya)
·
Maritime Delimitation in the Caribbean Sea and
the Pacific Ocean (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua)
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Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso/Niger)
·
Maritime Dispute (Peru v. Chile)
·
Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine)
·
Territorial and Maritime Dispute (Nicaragua v. Colombia)
·
Sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau
Sipadan (Indonesia/Malaysia)
·
Land and Maritime Boundary between Cameroon and
Nigeria (Cameroon v. Nigeria: Equatorial Guinea intervening)
·
Maritime Delimitation and Territorial Questions
between Qatar and Bahrain (Qatar v. Bahrain)
·
Maritime Delimitation between Guinea-Bissau and
Senegal (Guinea-Bissau v. Senegal)
·
Territorial Dispute (Libyan Arab
Jamahiriya/Chad) Maritime
Delimitation in the Area between Greenland and Jan Mayen (Denmark v. Norway)
The
Venezuelan government, according to El Universal, is peeved at statements last week attributed to Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge that “Venezuela seeks to claim anything it sees
as its own”. The truth, however, is that all Minister Greenidge was doing
was calling a spade a spade.
The dire economic situation in Venezuela, which has sparked dozens of riots because of the shortages of food and other essential items, has turned President Nicolas Maduro into a drowning man clutching to a straw for survival. The only problem is that that straw is Guyana's resource rich Essequibo region which borders Venezuela. Desperate men do desperate things. Ever since United States oil giant Exxon Mobil announced about three months ago that it had found significant deposits of oil in Guyana's Atlantic Ocean off-shore Essequibo, President Maduro has vowed to annex Essequibo, which is about two-thirds of Guyana's land mass.
President of Guyana David Granger, who is himself a historian, made is clear to a United States security forum recently, that if Venezuela makes good on its threat, Guyana as a nation would virtually cease to exist. In my view, President Maduro's call for face-to-face talks with President Granger would accomplish nothing. If Guyana agrees to such a meeting, it would be sending a signal to the world that Guyana is willing to discuss the future of its sovereign territory. There is nothing to discuss. The only option is to take the controversy to the International Court of Justice for a final judicial affirmation of the validity of the 1899 arbitral award.
Guyana needs to be vigilant in dealing with the United Nations team that Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon announced will be travelling to South America to meet with officials in Guyana and Venezuela. Venezuela’s aggression towards Guyana over Essequibo has to be settled judicially at the International Court of Justice if international investors are to have the confidence that they would not have to scrap their planned investments in the Essequibo region under threats from the Venezuelan military.
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| Crowds swarm a supermarket in Venezuela in light of shortages of basic items. |
President of Guyana David Granger, who is himself a historian, made is clear to a United States security forum recently, that if Venezuela makes good on its threat, Guyana as a nation would virtually cease to exist. In my view, President Maduro's call for face-to-face talks with President Granger would accomplish nothing. If Guyana agrees to such a meeting, it would be sending a signal to the world that Guyana is willing to discuss the future of its sovereign territory. There is nothing to discuss. The only option is to take the controversy to the International Court of Justice for a final judicial affirmation of the validity of the 1899 arbitral award.
Guyana needs to be vigilant in dealing with the United Nations team that Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon announced will be travelling to South America to meet with officials in Guyana and Venezuela. Venezuela’s aggression towards Guyana over Essequibo has to be settled judicially at the International Court of Justice if international investors are to have the confidence that they would not have to scrap their planned investments in the Essequibo region under threats from the Venezuelan military.
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| Annexation of Essequibo would not stop these food riots. |
President Granger should continue to build diplomatic alliances with friendly Western countries that are ready and willing to activate military assets in Guyana's defence, should Venezuela invade Guyana. We saw what happened to Iraq when they invaded Kuwait. President Maduro's recent trip to the UN underscores the fact that he is trying to legitimize his country's claim to Essequibo and any impending action that he might take against Guyana. I agree that there should be a diplomatic confrontation between Guyana and Venezuela, but it should be held at the appropriate forum - the United Nations General Assembly and not face-to-face. The General Assembly would allow member states to evaluate the controversy in a neutral environment, seek clarification and eliminate the apprehension of bias by both sides to the on-going controversy.
