Dear Editor,

The Village Council of the Isseneru Amerindian Titled Village situated in the Middle Mazaruni, Region 7, wishes to record on behalf of our 300 plus residents our concern over the delay in the hearing of the appeal case between the Isseneru Village Council and Mr Lalta Narine which is presently in the High Court.

Mr Lalta Narine was given blocks of land by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission to conduct gold mining activities in our community before it became a titled village in 2007.

Our village lands are now titled lands, legally owned by the residents of Isseneru Village and administered by a Village Council under the 2006 Amerindian Act. Our village lands have also been demarcated by the government.

Section 48 of the said Amerindian Act requires that Mr Lalta Narine gets the permission of two thirds of residents present and entitled to vote at a Village General Meeting before he can commence any mining on our village lands. Mr Narine has not got this consent and continues to mine reaping the benefits of this mining while our village receives nothing.

Through the medium of your newspaper, we wish to ask the responsible authorities to speed up the hearing of our appeal. We are confident that our grounds for appeal are reasonable and good in law and that we would be spared the continuous disruptions of our everyday social and economic activities caused by Mr Narine’s mining.

Yours faithfully,
Toshao Dhaness Larson

Editor’s note

We are sending a copy of this letter to Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang for any comment he might wish to make.