Jagdeo calls massacre of Guyanese fishermen an act of ‘terrorism’

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has described the high-seas massacre of over a dozen Guyanese fishermen off the coast of Suriname to be an act of terrorism and says the opposition PPP will raise the matter in the National Assembly this week.

Speaking with fishermen Sunday afternoon in Nieuw Amsterdam, near the Surinamese capital Paramaribo, Jagdeo suggested that the matter may be best addressed using laws against terrorism, since anti-piracy legislation may not be best suited.

The Opposition Leader is accompanied to Suriname by the former Attorney General Anil Nandlall. Authorities in Suriname are said to be questioning several persons as they seek to find the perpetrators. They believe the attackers are well known to the Guyanese fishermen.

Jagdeo said he was not in Suriname to play politics, but that he wanted to have all the facts as possible for when the opposition PPP raises the matter in the National assembly this week.

The Opposition Leader said he would ask the David Granger administration to offer financial support to the families of the victims.

President Granger last week described the piracy attack as a “great massacre, a great tragedy.”

“We are deeply grieved by the tragedy; clearly some Guyanese have been victims, and we are in touch with the Surinamese government and the Surinamese Police authorities,” told reporters.

He said the Government plans to observe “formal mourning” for the victims.

Surinamese authorities are currently still looking for the bodies of 12 Guyanese fishermen as three have so far been recovered. Five men are known to have survived the attack.

“We have been very successful over the last three years in curbing piracy; this has come as a setback,” Granger stated in extending sympathies to the families of the missing men.