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Moses Nagamootoo: On Hijacking and Piracy

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Administrator

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Registered:: June 08, 2005

Posts: 178

Posted

Speech by Moses Nagamootoo in the National Assembly on July 3, 2008 on the Hijacking and Piracy Bill 2008.

Mr Speaker, I rise to support the Bill - the Hijacking and Piracy Bill 2008 and I readily recognise that this, as a singular piece of legislation, does not constitute a silver bullet to eliminate crimes in the sea or crimes in our riverain areas or crimes for that matter in other parts of our jurisdiction - whether within our territorial waters or on the high seas.

It merely re-affirms the will of our Parliament as a tribune of all the people that it has our purposeful consent, if I may say so.

The Honourable Member on the other side has used the word ‘consensus’ or ‘consensual’, for the consent with a very forceful voice to those who harass honest, hardworking folks earning their living in the biblical way, “from the sweat of thy brow”, and at the same time to recognise that fishermen have a pride of place in our nation as persons seeking out an independent living, who need the protection of this Parliament, our legislators, the coercive capacity of the law and the institutions of the law.

I agree with my learned friend and colleague Mrs Deborah Backer that simply writing into a law all the punishment and the penalties that would be prescribed for the offences would not be enough. Enforcement is important and critical. But that does not mean that we under-estimate the law, which is our shield and which is our sword in carrying the fight against murderers in the sea, pirates, hijackers, and people who are committed to violence of the most vile and meanest types.

I owe my good friend the Opposition Leader Mr Robert Corbin an acknowledgement, when he had referred to the Bible and me on the last occasion. I want to say that we must never forget that it was Christ who, upon looking at Peter, had said, “Peter upon this rock I shall build my church.”

In saying that I recognise that fishermen have always had a pride of place which is why we must support this law not only in principle, but we should all join in this House to let the fishermen in Guyana - throughout Guyana (not only on the Corentyne) know that criminal activities in our waters, on the high seas, in vessels owned by Guyanese or registered in Guyana or carrying the flag of our State, would not be condoned and that harsh penalties await those who could be caught, tried and eventually put away!

I refer again to what I said just now that it is not only Corentyne that is affected. So we would send a wrong signal if we try to politicise this piece of legislation. It ought not to be the subject of politicisation and I ask through this House that my learned colleagues on the other side of this House ought not attempt to do so.

I have read of piracy in Bartica, off the Bartica Coast, in the Essequibo River. There is no race that is attached to the victims; there is no mercy that has been shown towards any race or, in any geographic area.

In March of 2007, I read in the newspaper (Stabroek News, Sunday, 24 March 2007) of an attack that was carried out against the Lady Shanta: four masked men swarmed the boat in the Waini River and they escaped with the outboard engine, the crew’s ration, clothing and $500,000 in fish.

I read that on the fishing boat, Prince Christopher, a fisherman, was also attacked and shots were discharged at the Captain, Neville George.

So as I looked at the names and the geography it is a matter that is not only peculiar to Berbice and the Corentyne.

“Gunmen hijacked boat in the Essequibo River.” [Reading newspaper headline] This is another incident. It was moored alongside the Parika Stelling yesterday morning (whatever that date was) and these were people waiting for others to come on board. This happened in the Essequibo River on 24 March 2006. And of course there is the piracy that I referred to on the Corentyne.

This Bill combines piracy, which is an act of violence, with other acts of depredation - predatory and savage in nature-- and involves an economic crime. It also involves plundering, pillaging, the theft of property and murder. Recently six fishermen were killed - six fishermen in one swoop lost their lives. Three bodies washed to shore. I am not sure if my reading informed me that the other three bodies have been found.

Hence this Bill, being described by the Honourable Minister as comprehensive, is in fact an attempt to deal with the diverse aspect of this criminal enterprise that is known as hijacking and piracy. Because it provides for the forfeiture of the assets deemed to be coming from the acts of banditry at sea (if I may say so) in a way that sends a message that one cannot benefit from the rewards of criminal activities, and also prescribes the penalty under the law - custodial penalty on conviction. So this is in fact a hybrid law.

Mr Speaker, a while ago, as we were debating the previous Bills before this House that were the spill over from the “sunset legislation”, reference was made to the Treaty to which we acceded. In this instance, we are perhaps many, many years late in a sense of bringing a legislation, (even though the Criminal Law (Offences) Act had provided for us to deal with criminal offences of this type), that combines consideration of criminal activities on land with those on the high seas. This is a fulfilment of the provisions of (what was then) in 1958, the Geneva Convention on Crimes on the High Seas and now, I believe, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982. Provisions in this Bill are made not only to deal within jurisdictional waters, but on the high seas. That has not been contemplated by any of the existing laws in our statute book.

In a sense this Bill has answered to the requirement of International Law, and the framers of this piece of legislation ought to be congratulated for making it comprehensive, for making it broad to incorporate the enlightenment of International Law into domestic legislation.

Mr Speaker, I have come from the Corentyne where I was born into a family of fishermen. I have in my days going to school performed part of the fishing work of the family. And so, I can speak from my heart about what such a Law as this one would mean to those fishermen in my village, my own family who are still in the fishing business, all other fishermen in the Corentyne and throughout Guyana. I say this not simply to claim an affinity with the victims of the criminal activities at sea, but to recall how important it is to be protected by our Parliament, to be protected by your Laws, to be protected by your courts, to be protected by your security forces.

My father’s fishing boat as early as I knew it, and when I saw it moored in the Alness Channel in the Corentyne, the first thing I observed was the name of the boat; it was called “DAILY BREAD.” I supposed if you have fish you need bread, but it emphasizes simply in a nutshell how small fishermen see what they do and I was happy in the newspaper of 11 March 2004, (I am going back in time 2007, 2006, 2004) to see a letter signed by one Khem who wrote these words:

“Fishermen are some of the hardest working people daily risking their lives on the high seas to earn a decent living. Many of them barely manage to eke out a living. Some days their fish does not sell and they have to return home empty handed; they have to look into the eyes of their children and see the emotional and mental distress that emerges from poverty. The robbery of these fishermen are an example of how mentally defiled these criminals are in their warped perception of the world. I hope that these robbers are caught and made to pay for their sins.”

I refer back to the issue of DAILY BREAD and the sweat of brow which is why righteous people see the criminal activity on the sea as a ‘sin’. And if our Parliamentarians cannot punish the ‘sinners’ then what are we here for? That is why, whether this Bill goes to a Special Select Committee or not, I would like to hear from my colleagues who would follow me, their unanimous condemnation for these acts of piracy and other depredation that have wreaked havoc on the lives of our hardworking people.

Mr Speaker, I wish to refer to the cruelty of these hijackers and pirates. Of course those of us who have read literature and even saw “Pirates of the Caribbean”, know that there is a type of romanticism attached to piracy. We have to dispel that notion of romanticism about Sir Morgan and the Buccaneers, etc. Reading about the Aegean Sea, I saw there was the piracy against Julius Caesar somewhere in 75 BC. So that it is a very, very old profession, but oftentimes mistakenly romanticised as a glorified activity by which one gains a living. We must demystify this as we approach these rootless criminals.

And so in supporting this Bill today, I want also to remind you that not only were the fishermen killed on a few occasions, but I have seen reports of the fishermen locked into their ice boxes, thrown overboard and made to swim to shore, sometimes two/three/four miles out from shore, left to drift on their ice boxes fending for themselves for days. So that we must not look to any romantic side of these acts of the pirates, but look at the sufferings of the victims. That is why I say that in passing this Law here today, this Parliament is showing solidarity towards the victims. There is not a silver bullet to bring an end to all of this, but we need to show solidarity to the victims!

Mr Speaker, as my learned friend and colleague former Attorney General Bernard De Santos shared with me, this law ought to have a deterrent effect. I have read the provisions and hopefully we have all read the provisions regarding bail and I wish to say that except for the Clause that says that a person charged with murder in the course of committing an act of piracy or hijacking would be denied bail, this Bill reinforces the presumption of innocence, it reinforces all the protection of law, that if you go before a magistrate you could be granted bail. But there are certain prescriptions by which bail should be granted, that is, the prosecution should be able to address the issue, to speak to the issue and all of that in a bail application is normally taken into account. I agree with my friend who said “superfluous”, but it is placed in the law and even if is repeated, it is re-emphasized. It does not hurt and therefore it also answers those who have said that this Bill before this House would be draconian. This also says that the Bill conforms with the principles of law and jurisprudence and therefore should not be flawed or criticised or attacked as being deficient on that basis.

Mr Speaker, [Interruption: ‘With these few words!’] I would repeat my learned friend’s words (her words are so full of wisdom and I wish these words were fewer; or that hadn’t she not spoken that I would not have had to respond to her), with these words, Sir, I wish to commend this Bill and ask for the unanimous support of this House. [Applause]

Ramakant_p

Elite Member

Location: Brampton,ontario,Cda

Registered:: June 28, 2002

Posts: 28816

Posted

As I said before, I support Moses Nagamootoo for the Presidential nominee, because at this time the PPP has no one to take Bharat Jagdeo's place in the Central committee.

Ignored post by Ramakant_p posted