GUYANA-BORDER-Guyana warns Venezuela moving to annex Essequibo.

GEORGETOWN -- The Guyana government says it concerned that Venezuela's December 3 referendum could lay the ground work for the annexation of the county of Essequibo, which Caracas has been claiming belongs to it.

In a statement, Georgetown said it has taken 'careful note' of the issuance by the National Electoral Council of Venezuela of five questions to be asked in the national referendum.

It said among other questions, all of which are intended to further Venezuela's 'unlawful and unfounded claim to more than two-thirds of Guyana's national territory, question five is

the most pernicious.

'It brazenly seeks the approval of the Venezuelan people of the creation of a new Venezuelan State consisting of Guyana's Essequibo Region, which would be incorporated into the national territory of Venezuela, and the granting of Venezuelan citizenship to the population.'

Guyana said this 'amounts to nothing less than the annexation of Guyana's territory, in blatant violation of the most fundamental rules of the UN Charter, the OAS Charter and general international law.

'Such a seizure of Guyana's territory would constitute the international crime of aggression,' the Irfaan Ali government said, adding that it 'categorically rejects any attempt to undermine the territorial integrity of the sovereign State of Guyana.

'The Government finds abhorrent that the Essequibo region which forms part of the territory of Guyana in accordance with the 1899 Arbitral Award that demarcated the boundaries of the States of Venezuela and then British Guiana, should be 'created' into a State...