President says surveillance by sea and air must be enhanced

President says surveillance by sea and air must be enhanced:

Written by Chevon Singh
Wednesday, 08 February 2012 21:42

As he emphasizes state’s responsibility for dealing with piracy.

PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar has emphasised the state’s responsibility for handling incidents of piracy, and that emphasis, he insists, extends to the enhancement of continuous and systemic surveillance by sea and air.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) and Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon, made this clear yesterday during his post cabinet press briefing, at the Office of the President, when he announced that government intends to increase its law enforcement capability to deal with piracy. He expressed profound sympathy with the victims and their families.

He said too that President Ramotar has also mentioned appropriate marine communication means, and owing to its criminal proportion and nature, “profound and sound intelligence gathering to deal with piracy.”

He noted that the Head of State expressed the view that the entire episode begs for relief and more inputs from law enforcement in Guyana.
As to what this will entail, the Cabinet Secretary said, “As to the air corps recapitalisation, it is unfortunate that has not proceeded with the pace and scope the administration anticipated, but with a renewed focus on the completion of their capitalisation, the re-entry into serviceability of the Bell 412 Helicopter and the entry into serviceability of the Cessna aircraft, abandoned at Kwapau airstrip years ago, indeed both land and sea surveillance will become a fixed part of the air corps mandate.”
Additionally, efforts would be enhanced to provide routine maritime patrols by existing boats and others to be acquired by the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) and by the Police, Dr. Luncheon added.

Search and Rescue:

Dr. Luncheon emphasised that it was not a lack of effort by the relevant authorities in mounting, both timely and appropriately, a search and rescue operation, that led to the unfortunate incident where a four man crew was involved in a boat mishap, while coming to the rescue of a West Coast Demerara boat that was robbed by pirates off the Pomeroon River Mouth last Friday.

“I believe, I can say this on my own behalf, the flow of information might not have been as profound as it could have been; and it led those poor, unfortunate fisherfolk to feel that an intervention of the magnitude that actually took place was not being done.

I do not believe there was a shortage of effort, they (the fishermen) were not fully informed, and they went on a mission of mercy with this unfortunate outcome,” the HPS related.
Pirates targeted approximately 15 fishing boats off the coast of the Pomeroon River in a spate of attacks which started at around 08:00hrs on Friday and ended at around the same time on Saturday.

Following this incident, a fishing boat, with a four member crew, sank Saturday afternoon in the rough waters off the Suddie coast, while taking an outboard engine to rescue their fellow fishermen who were victims of the pirate attack on the Pomeroon River.