Stating that it stands in solidarity with all interior communities, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) is calling for mining to be removed from the list of “essential services” in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus in those areas which are close to the Brazil as the neighbouring country is being ravaged by the disease.
Mining is among the industries granted conditional exemptions from COVID-19 restrictions currently in place. The rationale for this decision, particularly given the efforts to limit movement to prevent the spread of COVID-19, has not been made public.
In a statement recognising the devastating effects of the pandemic on neighbouring Brazil, the GHRA on Saturday expressed concern that increased COVID-19 cases in interior locations close to the border with Brazil have been linked to mining activity.
Against this background, the human rights body is asking that the concerns of toshaos in these areas regarding mining activity be addressed, while contending that mining is neither essential nor a service.
According to the GHRA, “the unwillingness” of the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) “to resist pressure from miners is taken directly from the playbook of the HIV epidemic in the 1990s in which virtually nothing was done to curb miners or truckers until Guyana was overwhelmed with the highest HIV infection rates outside sub-Saharan Africa.”
In its press release, the rights body said that despite representative indigenous bodies at community, regional and national levels, indigenous influence and participation in the COVID-19 Task Force appears non-existent and added that the NCTF needs to recognise that cooperation from the communities is vital for the success of its ultimate aims.
“The multi-sectoral community collaborative response to the 1980s epidemic could not be more strongly contrasted with the current situation,” the release said.
On this point, the body said that the time for preparing this community-based foundation is slipping away. It said that training in contact tracing, working out effective measures which all visitors to the interior must observe and ways of carrying them out cannot be developed in Georgetown by “experts,” but has to be done on the ground in conjunction with those communities.
It said that the rainy season also has to be taken into account.
According to the GHRA, toshaos in Baramita and Chinese Landing in Region One and St. Ignatius, Shulinab, and Aishalton in Region Nine, along with National and Regional Toshaos Councils have yet to have their concerns related to mining activity addressed, and that disruptive actions had to be mounted recently even to get a hearing of their concerns.
The GHRA noted that according to the Toshao of Chinese Landing in Region One mining companies rather than toshaos are authorising miners to access communities. According to the GHRA, recent data released by the MoPH has shown that despite emergency measures, the rate of COVID-19 transmission continues to climb, and that a senior health official in a televised report on Friday acknowledged that the increase in cases in the Puruni Region of Region Seven was linked to mining activity.
It also said a Kaieteur News report also highlighted the lively nightlife at Puruni Landing involving women trafficked from Venezuela.
The GHRA said the withdrawal of personnel from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Guyana Forestry Commission and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission from interior areas and the influx of illegal miners in the other direction as a result of the current high price of gold is potentially devastating to indigenous communities.
In this regard the rights body said it “adds its voice to the calls for mining, which is neither essential nor a service, to be removed from the list of essential services,” even as it extended solidarity to all interior communities, many of which it said have been active and vocal in protection of their communities to stop the spread of COVID-19.
‘Disregard’
Lamenting what it described as the task force’s disregard for Guyana’s experience in dealing with epidemics and regional crises, the GHRA further noted that historically in Guyana, epidemics such as malaria, TB and HIV multiplied undetected, only to surge dramatically when numbers were out of control.
Two major reasons, it said, explain this phenomenon—all governmental administrative services in the interior being inadequate because of distance and terrain and, because Amerindians are highly vulnerable to imported diseases to which they have limited immunity.
According to the GHRA the malaria epidemic of the mid-80s is a good example. It said that in addition to the endemic scourge of TB, 3,686 reported cases of malaria were recorded in August 1985 and by the end of that year the annual figure had risen to 7,600.
The human rights body said that entire communities in the Rupununi and the Upper Mazaruni, in particular, were affected by this epidemic and by June of 1986, malaria had affected over 16,000 persons according to what it said were estimates from the Pan American Health Organization.
The total number of cases reported between January and August 1987, the GHRA said, was approximately 17,000.
It said that a coastal coalition of twelve religious, civic, professional and business organisations, including the Guyana Medical Association and the Gold and Diamond Miners Association had taken action.
According to the GHRA release, in conjunction with health workers in the communities some three-quarter million anti-malaria tablets were distributed from early 1986 to early 1989 to 36 Amerindian communities in the interior, under the supervision of the Christian churches. Additionally, 45,000 yards of mosquito netting materials were provided to women’s groups in the communities to make nets and information about malaria was circulated in the Arawak, Patamona and Wapishan languages in regions One, Eight and Nine.
The body went on to state that collaborative actions of this nature are nowadays much easier to manage given the strengthened capacity for self-governance of indigenous communities and the regional and national coordination of toshaos through the National Toshaos Council.
However, it said despite this multiplicity of representative indigenous bodies at community, regional and national level, indigenous influence and participation in the COVID-19 task force appears non-existent.
The GHRA said that as COVID-19 relentlessly advances through the length and breadth of Latin America, devastating Brazil and laying waste to Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, Guyana has so far been spared a similar onslaught.
It said that virtually all places where people interact – shops, markets, banks, offices and places of worship – have taken social distancing, hand-washing and mask-wearing to heart.
The body said in its release that the NCTF can take credit for having promoted all the World Health Organization recommended public health practices, while adding that success in the public health arena is vital to offset limitations on the local medical front as regards inadequate testing and protective equipment and treatment.
“To the extent that medical resources (to date) are not overwhelmed, the task force and MoPH deserve our appreciation,” the GHRA said, before adding that this relatively encouraging situation largely reflects the coastal communities, while interior regions of Guyana are another matter.
