PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP):
TERRITORIAL DISPUTES between members of the Caribbean Community could sully relations within the regional bloc if they are not resolved, the Secretary General said.
Urging feuding members to resolve their rival claims, Secretary General Edwin Carrington said land and maritime disputes were threatening relations within the 15-nation Caribbean Community.
"These issues need to be settled. If they keep festering and they are not settled, they can damage the camaraderie and the spirit in the Caribbean Community," Mr. Carrington said on Friday evening in Suriname's capital, Paramaribo.
Currently, Suriname is arguing with Guyana for land and sea rights. Guyana claims maritime areas off of Trinidad. And Trinidad is wrangling with Barbados over fishing rights to waters off Tobago.
Mr. Carrington's comments came after President Ronald Venetiaan said Suriname had hired a New York-based law firm to defend its claims against Guyana's in the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. Guyana last month filed its claim with the U.N. body.
The Suriname-Guyana maritime dispute relates to hundreds of square miles (kilometres) off the South American coast believed to contain large deposits of oil and natural gas.
No clear borders were drawn between the former Dutch and British colonial governments. Guyana achieved independence from Britain in 1966, while Suriname gained freedom from the Netherlands in 1975.
Last month Guyana accused Suriname of obstructing a solution since the two countries began negotiating after coming close to conflict in 2000. The two strengthened their militaries recently, with Suriname sending two gunboats to the region and expelling a Canadian company exploring for oil there under a Guyanese licence.
In 2002, the countries signed a deal for joint-exploration of the area, but the dispute continues to hinder investment on both sides.
Guyana and Suriname have also argued over the New River Triangle region, a 6,000-square-mile (15,000-square-kilometre) plot of land near Guyana's south-eastern tip. Surinamese soldiers and civilians occupied the region until 1969, when Guyanese troops expelled them back to Suriname and stayed to patrol the region.
Suriname has said it cannot negotiate a maritime settlement until Guyana pulls its troops from the New River Triangle. Both countries also claim the dividing Corentyne River.
Separately, Barbados in February threatened sanctions and imposed import regulations against Trinidad while asking the U.N. maritime body to settle a dispute over fishing in waters off Tobago. There is no maritime border between the two islands about 300 kilometres (188 miles) apart.
Guyana also claims Trinidad is holding an unfair amount of maritime area, delineated in a 1990 accord between Trinidad and Venezuela.
In February, Guyana and Barbados agreed to share maritime resources in their overlapping territories - a move seen as by many a slap in the face to Trinidad. Guyana's government has insisted its relations with the twin-island country were healthy.
