Preface

The border between between the Republic of Suriname and the Co-operative Republic of Guyana runs along the westbank of the Corentyne river.For decades, there has been a dispute regarding the continuation of the border at the upper reaches of the river. In the colonial period the mother countries, namely the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, failed to reach an agreement regarding this matter.

Suriname and Guyana have been in dialogue with each other since 1966 through their National Border Commissions – with interruptions due to internal developments. Historical documents were exchanged back and forth in order to gain a good insight into the history of the origin of the problem and to find leads to solve it.

The recent publication on this subject in the Dutch language by Ambassador Evert Gonesh also places this problem in a historical, political and legal context, aiming to create as balanced as possible a picture of the arguments put forward by both neighboring countries in support of their respective vieuws.

It seems to me to be recommended that knowledge of the contents of this publication, for which the author bears full responsibility, should be accessible to a wider audience than just a Dutch speaking public. Based on this consideration, in our joint search for a solution acceptable to both parties, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Business and International Cooperation of the Republic of Suriname , has made possible the translation of the book before you into the English language.

Paramaribo, August 2023

A. Ramdin Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Business and International Cooperation

Decolonisation not only led to the creation of a number of new states, but in many cases territorial disputes between neighbouring states also revealed themselves. The border inherited from the mother country did not always coincide with the boundary line claimed by new states on historical or geographical grounds. Such a situation occurs regarding the border between Suriname and its two neighbours French Guiana and Guyana. This study focuses on the border dispute between Suriname and Guyana.

On the 26 May 1966 British Guiana became an independent state under the name Guyana and on the 25 November 1975, Suriname, also known as Dutch Guiana,became independent. A dispute existing since 1900 between Great Britain and the Netherlands about the border between these then former colonies was transferred to the two new states by the respective mother countries at independence.

The Corentyne River has traditionally formed the border between the two countries. Upstream, this river splits into several source rivers, including the New River 1 and the Curuni.2 In 1900, on hydrometric grounds, the Netherlands claimed the New River as its main source river and thus as a continuation of the border on the upper Corentyne. Britain, in response to the Dutch claim, argued that the Curuni with the Cutari as its source river was the boundary, since it would have been tacitly accepted by the Netherlands as the boundary between the two colonies for decades. The Curuni-Cutari was referred to by Britain as ‘Corentyne’, and in 1965 Suriname named the ‘New River’ as ‘Boven-Corantijn’ (Upper Corentyne).

1 Since the literature generally uses the Guyanese designation ‘New River’ instead of ‘Upper Corentyne’, in this publication we will use the designation ‘New River’ as much as possible to keep the issues in focus, and in a few cases mention: New River (Upper Corentyne).

2 The Curuni is plainly referred to by Guyana as ‘Corentyne’. Various spellings for the Curuni with its source river Cutari are used in the literature such as Koeroeni and Koetari. We will retain ‘Curuni’ and ‘Cutari’ in the text and refer to that branch of the Corentyne as CuruniCutari.

The New River and the Curuni-Cutari enclose an area in the shape of a triangle, which is referred to by Guyana as the ‘New River Triangle’, and by Suriname as the ‘Tigri Area’.3 To indicate that it is the same area, our publication uses the designation ‘Tigri Triangle’ instead of ‘Tigri area’. Due to divergent views regarding the border at the headwaters of the Corentyne, sovereignty over this territorial triangle has been disputed since 1900. However, the area has been occupied by Guyana following a military operation since August 1969.

In February 1968 Guyana issued a publication entitled Guyana Suriname Boundary. Featuring Guyana’s coat of arms on the cover, this publication is considered Guyana’s White Paper presenting the view of the government of Guyana regarding the dispute about the sovereignty over the ‘New River Triangle’/’Tigri Triangle’ (Annex I).

Several publications on the subject appear to be broadly based on the content of the Guyanese White Paper (Pollard, 1976; Menon, 1978; Donovan, 2003; Donovan, 2004; Joseph 2010). This prompted us to devote a study to the historical and current context of the Surinamese-Guyanese border dispute, discuss the various views on it, and test the contrasting views against historical facts and international law criteria.

After a brief introduction, this study first examines how the border between the two neighbouring countries was established. Divergent findings regarding the border on the upper Corentyne are then considered. The resulting contrasting British and Dutch views are then discussed. The internal discussions and divergent views between the government and parliament in the Netherlands regarding the emerging border issue are also considered. The escalation of the dispute after Guyana’s independence in 1966 ending with Guyana’s military occupation of the disputed territory in 1969 is also discussed. Finally, some relevant aspects of international law concerning these border issues are touched upon. Each chapter ends with ‘Concluding remarks’.

3 ‘Tigri’ is a reference to the semi-military post established in the area in question by Suriname in 1968. See among others: Evert G. Gonesh, ‘Half a century of Tigri’ in Starnieuws, August 19th, 2019.

This publication was produced on the basis of sources selected over the years from the Public Record Office and the British Museum in London, as well as from the then Algemeen Rijks Archief (now called Nationaal Archief) in The Hague. In addition to consulting relevant literature on the Surinamese-Guyanese border dispute, with regard to the discussions in the Dutch Parliament on this subject,the publications of Dr H.D. Benjamins, among others in various volumes of the magazine De West-Indische Gids, were mainly used.

We thank Dr Hans Ramsoedh, historian, for his comments and advice on an earlier version of the manuscript.