A Region 1(Barima-Waini) family is pleading with the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs to intervene after their cottage and crops and fruit trees were demolished by a gold miner who has laid claim to the area.
“We have lived here since 2004 and my family before that. It is not a big area we were on; it is like a Georgetown house lot but we plant it up with fruit trees and crops we need to eat; mangoes, pears (avocado), whitie, peach, cashews, lemons, lime…then they came and said it had gold, and before we could blink the excavator start destroy everything,” Ianna villager Keith Smith lamented to Stabroek News via the phone of a shop owner on Saturday.
“We plead and beg these people to spare the trees that were bearing because all the mangoes, pear and whitie was bearing but they didn’t listen. I stand and watch everything just gone with a dip of the grader… we asking you to help us ask the government and the ministry to help us, please,” he added.
It was through the owner of the shop, who asked this newspaper not to be named, that Smith’s plight was highlighted because the woman said that she was “tired of seeing …people being taken advantage of and bullied in the name of gold”.
The shop owner said that “all of Ianna can testify that Keith family them living there for donkey years” and that she feels that “higher influence” saw Smith being forced to sign a 72-hour evacuation order or be locked up.
“We up here have to endure so much and I am sure is not just Amerindians this side. We hear every day from the miners that Amerindian people feel all the lands in the interior is them own and land titling favouring we when plenty gold leaving under the lands. It is so unfair. This man asked to keep this small area but because gold running through they lick out everything. Is that right?” she asked, while breaking down sobbing.
“I want to put this in the papers because people don’t know what happens up these parts. They don’t understand that is who have the most money is call the shots and control the officers. They don’t understand that Amerindians here have no voice really. I on the landing and I is go to town so I know and I know this is sheer advantage,” she added.
Smith, a father of five, related that since he began living at the location in 2004, he lived in “peace” and planted crops for subsistence but “plenty fruit trees” so that it could supply villagers in the neighbouring areas. “We don’t buy fruits here. I love my fruits and vegetables so we farmed up and when the crops bear, we would share. For the past three years the fruit trees bear bountiful and we were looking forward to this year,” he said.
“But on March 14th a miner came and said that the land is their own and asked if I had a problem with them cutting down a mango tree. That one was bearing so I refused and so the miner got vex and say he will tell the woman that say she owns the claim and let her tell GGMC (Guyana Geology and Mines Commission),” he added.
He said the man was hostile and suspecting that there might be added tensions, the next day he and his wife visited the Toshao of Kariako Village, who is responsible for the area. “I talk to Toshao and he said he will inform the village warden of the problem. But no one came and I kept looking out. A couple of days later an excavator came and break down nine of my trees and I walked myself to go see the mine officer and complain,” he stated.
However, Smith said that the officer asked him if, regardless of how long he owned claims, if he (Smith) would feel good knowing someone was living on them or planted on them.
“The officer did not want to hear my side of the story. They are all for the large miners. Imagine he told me that it is the people land and ask me if I would want anybody on me lands. The warden say they don’t want anyone to record what they are saying and they will take away anybody phone if they have”, he said.
The officer, Smith said, gave him “a remove order to sign” which gives him 72 hours to pack up all that he owns and leave lest his personal belongings are disposed of. “I can go on the other side of the river but to give me 72 hours to move? I don’t have a truck or a tractor and to rent one is one ounce of gold or $285,000. Where will we find that from?” he asked.
With most of his fruit trees already gone, Smith is hoping that the Amerindian Affairs Ministry can intervene so that his personal property is not destroyed or he faces being locked up for the 72 hours breach.
“We are just asking for help. They have signal on the landing so just a call to anyone out there to tell them stop. We just want them to do something to help us,” he stressed.
