Non-governmental organisations representing indigenous peoples have expressed alarm at statements by Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) executives that the miners’ body will take legal action and strenuously oppose extensions for Amerindian lands.
“Today the bell is tolling for the Amerindian people,” executive member and immediate past president of the Guyana Organisation of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP) Dr George Norton told Stabroek News yesterday.
“What will happen to (indigenous) communities when everybody says, ‘I have more rights than them’,” Programme Administrator of the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) Jean La Rose questioned even as she pointed out that miners have already taken indigenous villages to court and there are ongoing court battles.
At the GGDMA’s Annual General Meeting on Thursday, the organisation signalled its intention to strenuously oppose extensions for Amerindian lands and disclosed that it has set up a fund and hired lawyers in anticipation of future court action. President of the GGDMA Patrick Harding told the meeting that money from the Low Carbon Development Strategy is being used to fund extensions for Amerindian lands, a clear reference to the Amerindian land titling project signed last year. He recalled a meeting with the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank where “we walked out” over the issue.
“It’s not fair,” he said while adding that an initial $5 million fund has been set up and the GGDMA has hired lawyers, because “we want to challenge these things in court.”
Yesterday, La Rose took Harding to task for his “not fair” statement.
She pointed out that it is not fair from the standpoint of many communities as it relates to environmental destruction and the destruction of hunting grounds and farmlands by miners. “It is not fair that the water is being polluted by mining activities,” she declared while adding that diseases such as malaria, typhoid and dengue have increased as a result of breeding grounds for the vectors being created by miners and this was not fair. She added that it is unfair that indigenous womenfolk have to feel unsafe while traversing the land in certain areas.
Miners and Amerindian communities have come into conflict including in recent times and there are ongoing court battles such as by the community of Kako in Region Eight which has been sued by miners after villagers tried to prevent them from going up the Kako River to mine as they said that the miners would pollute their only source of drinking water. Another community, Isseneru, has approached the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights saying that the government failed to protect their rights.
There are also several documented cases of rivers being heavily polluted as a result of mining activities and recently the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) expressed concern about the environmental damage being done to three of the country’s main rivers: the Cuyuni, Mazaruni and Essequibo by gold mining. In addition, several Amerindian communities have complained of pollution to their rivers and recently Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud announced that the ministry would make available $80 million to the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) for the construction of a water treatment plant at Port Kaituma. This follows heavy pollution of the Kaituma River as a result of mining. Residents had previously used the water for drinking and other domestic purposes.
Despite the destruction, with falling gold declarations, the government has sought to boost miners and recently released thousands of acres of new mining lands. With the economy over the last five years increasingly dependent on the natural resources sector for growth, miners have had a bigger say on public issues. With gold declarations down this year, miners have been pressing the government to open up more and more lands for mining. Several auctions and lotteries of land have been held in recent weeks.
‘Wits’ end’
La Rose pointed out that miners have been taking Amerindian communities to court and they have the financial advantage while the communities are at their “wits’ end” in answering to the matters in court. She named several communities which has been impacted by mining. The number of communities already facing problems in relation to mining has increased, she said while adding that many of these indigenous villages do not have the finances for protracted court battles.
She said the miners want to “take a negative situation… and make it even more negative.” The APA official questioned whether miners and their families feel the impacts in the same way that Amerindians do. Pointing to the water, facilities available, among others, La Rose highlighted the disparity between miners who are there for a limited period of time while Amerindians have to live in the damaged areas.
APA Programme Assistant Laura George added that mining has contributed to social ills in many communities. “Is it fair when children become the victim of alcohol, sex and drug abuse?” she questioned. She said that all of the abuses that are happening, have occurred in full view yet the GGDMA has done nothing. “It has been so unfair,” she said.
Pointing to the fund set up, George noted that the GGDMA is well endowed and questioned who really has benefited from mining. She added that the mining activities compromise clear waters and a healthy ecosystem.
Further, she said, government has done little to regulate the sector. “How can a government turn its back on the lives of a people to support economic numbers?” she questioned while also asking what has happened to the laws and international obligations.
She noted the government’s recent commitment of US$10 million to the protected areas trust fund but said that it has not been doing its duty in relation to indigenous people’s rights. “The loss of a healthy way of life for a people… How can they be compensated? It can never be compensated,” she asserted. She also pointed out that some of the activities being done are contradictory to the Low Carbon Development Strategy.
Uncontrolled situation
What is so irrational is that an activity that entails huge emissions of carbon is being promoted while the rights of people and ecosystems are also being compromised, she said. “What is going to happen when all is finished?” she questioned. George said that indigenous people have always known land to be their home while miners and others, including the governance systems, view it as a commodity. Guyana is “in a rush to deplete our non-renewable resources,” she declared. “What will we have in the end?” she questioned.
“What is wrong with us as an indigenous people trying to protect our land?” La Rose added. She said that Amerindians are trying to protect their hunting and farming lands as well as ensure clear water for their use. “What is unfair with that” she questioned. “It is a very much uncontrolled situation in the interior,” she asserted saying that the authorities and GGDMA are taking very little action.
La Rose acknowledged that some Amerindian communities are engaged in mining but said that after initially saying that they would not do so, some communities, seeing the continuing destruction with little efforts to regulate the activities, decided to engage in mining as they felt that their communities are going to be destroyed anyway. “But destruction, whether by Amerindian or non-Amerindian, is destruction,” she asserted.
She said that conflict has pushed some homesteads and communities to relocate citing Kambaru in Region Seven as an example. La Rose said that it is easy for miners to get legal access to land but for Amerindian communities, the process takes years.
Meantime, Norton said he was not surprised that such a challenge would come. The challenge would put the Amerindian Act, which government has been trumpeting, to the test, he said while noting the court rulings in recent times in relation to Amerindian land rights. “Once the judges’ rule in favour of miners, then the floodgates would open,” he said.
Norton said the miners proposed action bring to the fore that the Amerindian Act is insufficient and incapable of supporting Amerindian rights. He said that the legislation contains many loopholes that were pointed out to the government before and Amerindians will lose much now.
“It is a question of finance,” he said while asking rhetorically who has more money than the miners now. “Nobody is going to be fighting for the Amerindians pro-bono,” he said while also expressing concern that international agencies who had previously expressed support are going back on promises.
“We can only see a long struggle ahead of us,” he said. He added that acts and agreements and treaties would be signed and conveniently ignored by the authorities. “The lands that belong to us are going to be taken away from us,” he said. “The Amerindian connection to the land is one the modern world cannot understand,” he asserted.
“The PPP/C track record is not one we are impressed with,” Norton added.
He recalled that the independence of Guyana was hinged to the Amerindians being given the right to their lands and almost a half-century later, the indigenous people are still fighting for their land and the situation is unsatisfactory.
He said that today the bell is tolling for the Amerindian people but in the future it could toll for all Guyanese. He said that this is happening in spite of the Low Carbon Development Strategy and the forest protection agreement with Norway.
“I am not surprised at all but I am disgusted by the whole situation,” he declared. “Our future doesn’t look so well at all.”
