Suriname miner killed in goldfields unrest, four inured

(De Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – Yesterday afternoon and evening, the situation at Maripaston got completely out of hand. One gold miner was killed, four were wounded and another one seriously injured. Employees of a security company, reportedly Mozart Security, shot at illegal gold miners who were refusing to leave a gold pit. The result was that the ca. 300 men in the gold mining camp rioted and burned down four stores. Three excavators also allegedly went up in flames. The employees of the security company are said to have fled the area. However, angry gold miners had barricaded the road. Police and military units have been sent to the area to restore order. “I’ve warned about this”, says Parliamentarian Ronny Brunswijk. For some time now, he and his brother Leo have been having a dispute about the situation at Maripaston with Gerold Dompig of the Commission to bring Order to the Gold Sector (COG). The brothers Brunswijk are alleging that under the guise of bringing order, friends of COG members are given a free hand in the area. Dompig angrily denies these allegations, saying, “When we went there, people were ready to take up arms against one other.”