By Lakhram Bhagirat
While acknowledging that almost all of the indigenous communities are affected by the negative impacts of mining, newly elected Chair of the National Toshaos Council (NTC), Derrick John said that the Council has identified the rights violations in Chinese Landing and Isseneru as its immediate priority.
Both Chinese Landing, Region One and Isseneru, Region Seven have taken the government before international commissions seeking relief for the plethora of rights violations they say they have experienced and continue to experience.
The situation in Chinese Landing is particularly daunting. The community took its complaint to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD) arguing that violations of their rights are being perpetuated by both the government and miners who were granted permission to operate on titled, customary and sacred lands within their communities.
The community is contending that the government granted a medium-scale mining concession to W Vieira in its titled lands without consulting or seeking the consent of the community. Chinese Landing had informed UN CERD that there has been an increase in unwanted mining which poses a risk to its traditional way of life and its environment. It is further alleged that a High Court dismissal, without a hearing, of a claim filed by the Chinese Landing indi-genous community against the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and W. Vieira concerning the mining concession has also resulted in an upsurge of intimidation and assaults on residents of the community, by miners and members of the Guyana Police Force.
UN CERD proposed that, among other things, all mining permits be suspended or revoked.
The miners in the community have been accused of threatening the lives of villagers, particularly that of toshao Orin Fernandes for bringing awareness to the situation.
Meanwhile, Isseneru took its case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) where it complained that the government had violated the rights of the community and its members to property, equality before the law, justice and a fair trial, to the protection of mothers and children, to the preservation of health and well-being, and to enjoy the benefits of culture.
IACHR said that government is responsible for at least 16 violations of the rights of the Isseneru community and its members and recommended that reparations be granted to the village as well as that government employ the necessary measures to support Isseneru and its members in their duty to preserve and protect the environment, particularly in relation to the mining operations that the community undertakes on its ancestral lands.
The government has requested additional time from the IACHR to respond to the recommendations while it has also submitted a response to UN CERD. However, details surrounding the response to UN CERD remain unknown.
Priority
Yesterday, during a telephone interview with Stabroek News, John, the toshao of Moraikobai in Region Five, said that a number of issues were raised during the recently concluded Toshaos Con-ference and are being looked at by the relevant ministries.
“We had a lot of toshaos at the conference and they were able to stand up and raise the issues and challenges in their communities. We heard everything from water pollution, to mining, to logging and everything in between. We took notes and the government people took notes. We also saw some of those issues getting addressed even before the conference ended.
“The core executive is new at the leadership of the NTC but we have so far identified that the issues at Isseneru and Chinese Landing (are) urgent and our priority. As you know those issues are before the courts but they were raised and we discussed it. I also raised it with the President as well but we got to respect the court and allow the court process to go forward,” John related.
He told Stabroek News that during last week’s conference, President Irfaan Ali indicated that a team was sent to the Chinese Landing community to meet with the miners and villagers in order to assess the situation.
“The President sent out a team to reach with the miners at Chinese Landing and I think there was measures that was put in place to address some of those concerns. So I really appreciate that. I spoke to the President, I think was on Thursday, and he said that the team was there to do more investigations,” the NTC Chair said.
Stabroek News attempted to contact Chinese Landing toshao Orin Fernandes in an effort to confirm whether the team had indeed visited. However, those efforts were unsuccessful.
John said that a team from the NTC would soon be meeting to formulate a work plan for its term after which a team would visit both Isseneru and Chinese Landing.
“We will discuss it at the NTC level. One of our first things that we would like to do is to go down on the ground to assess it for ourselves and reach out to the communities and to have a firsthand experience what’s happening and only then we would be in a better position to do whatever we can do to try to bring some comfort to the communities.
“Most of us from the NTC executive core, we are new to this…we want to go to Isseneru. We want to reach the community and then put us in a better position because these are very serious cases and we have to get facts. Our approach is to go there and see exactly for ourselves so that we can all set up a plan how and what the next step is,” he explained.
He said that they are aiming to visit the communities by the end of August since the issues there are urgent. John noted that there are other communities that are faced with those same issues and assured that they would also benefit from the same level of representation by the NTC.
“We are crafting our operational strategy and putting it in motion. I want to be able to give all of the communities the voice they need so that we can improve the way of life for us all,” he asserted.
Massive success
John’s ascension to the helm of the NTC was met with some scepticism because of the fact that he is seen as sympathetic to the government. He was selected to deliver the opening address at the conference after the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs sidelined the former executive body. The Ministry has since denied hijacking the conference and setting its own agenda.
John told Stabroek News that the conference was a “massive success” since the government was present throughout.
“I think toshaos had the opportunity to raise whatever concerns and whatever needs and challenges they face in their various communities. We had the president, vice president and the cabinet for the five days and they had the opportunity to dialogue with ministers and they did that. I spoke to a number of toshaos and they said that they were very pleased with the outcome of the conference because there were some things like in terms of infrastructure, roads had to be repaired and the president was right there to give immediate responses,” John reported.
He added that the commitment of $3 billion to find the development of indigenous communities was welcomed by the toshaos.
Many indigenous leaders and activists remain sceptical of John’s leadership owing to his previous stints at the helm of the NTC. One of the sore points is his May 2014 address to the 13th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
In his address, he said, “FPIC [free, prior and informed consent] is exercised in our country”. However, the government has been continually accused of breaching FPIC rules and procedures.
What was particularly upsetting to indigenous leaders and activists was when John told the UN, “The National Toshaos Council is concerned about the irresponsible action of the Amerindian Peoples Association which has influenced a particular village to advance a case on land and mining issues, to the IACHR without exhausting all domestic remedies. The National Toshaos Council wishes to state that the case referred to is misleading and does not represent the true situation, as Guyana has one of the more sophisticated processes of securing land rights for Amerindian peoples.”
At the time, he was referencing the Isseneru issue which the IACHR later found that the rights of villagers were indeed violated by the government.
It is unclear what position John will now take when representing the Isseneru people.
