Dear Editor,
I am writing this letter to enlighten the Guyanese public that a story has more than one side.
I started working my Draga SD 7652 at a point about 400 yards above where the dredge is presently located – (which by the way is a white Draga and not the one shown in the newspapers). This was in the Isseneru Village area during the first week of April, 2015. At the time of commencement, I was granted permission by a village official. In his words, what he says goes and he does not need to consult the council or anyone to grant permission, as his word was powerful enough.
He personally would have witnessed the wash down the first three times and collected 12% of the gross amounting to a total of 28 grams of gold. For this I was not issued with any receipt even though I requested same. On another occasion he asked me for $60,000 to fix his outboard engine. I borrowed the money from an Apaiqua business person to assist him as I wanted to stay friends with him and by extension the village. On another occasion he came on the dredge at about 10pm and asked for $20,000 to purchase alcohol for a friend’s birthday party. Again I assisted.
I have donated at the request of the previous village council cash totalling $300,000 to assist in the taking of a group of 60 persons to Kamarang to play football. To the present council around August this year, I donated a further $400, 000 to take the same group to the same event.
Aside from all of that I have assisted many individual residents of Isseneru village in numerous ways such as with diesel and lube oil for their land dredges and gasoline for their outboard engines. This would have cost me in excess of $1,500,000. This is not to mention facilitating transportation and repairing and welding and almost everything that individuals and the village would have requested of me. Being a good Guyanese citizen I believe in the code of the ‘Bush-man’, we all eat from the same plate. We have always maintained a friendly relationship with the village and at no time have we ever refused to assist in whatever way we can. That is why I cannot understand the reason for this situation.
Aside from the assistance I have always had to pay 12% of my gross production as tribute; this was the amount demanded. I have in my possession receipts from various representatives of the village council totalling almost 700 grams of Gold (22.5 ounces), $4,500,000 at today’s gold price.
To the best of my knowledge I would have paid to the village council’s representatives another 300 grams (10 ounces) ‒ $2,000,000 for which receipts were never issued to me. In sum, I would have paid 32.5 ounces of gold ‒ $6,500,000 ‒ to the village council of Isseneru.
Yours faithfully,
Suresh Ramkissoon
