One day after Chair of the National Toshaos Council (NTC) Derrick John said that the community of Chinese Landing should formally write the council requesting intervention to address the violation of their rights, Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai is now saying that nothing more can be done for the community.
Yesterday, when Stabroek News contacted Sukhai to find out whether her ministry will be taking any action to bring relief to the situation in Chinese Landing, the Minister said that every “legitimate” remedy has been exhausted.
“The Ministry have done everything that we could have done to assist them with all domestic remedies. They chose to go to the court. So there was nothing else that we can do at this point in time, because it’s not going to be correct for us to make a comment anymore.
“We took them through the process and up to the agency and the sector that deals with mining. We represented them to the last where they chose to go to the court. So that’s all I have to say. Thank you,” the Minister related in a telephone interview.
Further pressed on whether her ministry will at least be visiting to address the economic woes of the community, the minister responded in the negative. Instead, she told this newspaper to find out from the “other representatives” what they are doing to assist the community.
“We have done everything in our legitimate mandate to assist them from the time they reported to us. I arranged a meeting with them and their Council to meet with Minister (Vickram) Bharrat, further to that they had subsequently had other meetings and they chose to go to court even without telling us. It caught us by surprise. They have other representatives looking after their interests, so maybe they will tell you what they’re doing for them. Thank you,” she said before disconnecting the call.
Subsequent calls went unanswered.
Chinese Landing, a Carib indigenous community, is a remote village along the Barama River in the Barima-Waini region and it received its land title in 1976 under then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham. The village received its Certificate of Title on August 10, 2018, for 30.06 square miles or 19,241 acres of land.
The issue in the village stems from a 1995 allocation of mining blocks within the community’s titled lands. The miners currently occupy a section of the village called Tassawini – the gold-rich area. That area has been allocated to Wayne Vieira, a businessman from Houston, East Bank Demerara. The village has said that it was done without their free, prior and informed consent.
The Tassawini area was where villagers used to mine and with the allocation of the blocks to a Georgetown-based businessman, Chinese Landing residents could not have earned a living anymore. Since its allocation to Vieira, the community has been engaged in a battle with him to regain control. Guyana’s apex court, the Caribbean Court of Justice, has already ruled that Vieira cannot be prevented from mining in the area since he legally owns the blocks there. Just last year, the High Court also dismissed a challenge brought by the community against Vieira. That judgment is currently being appealed.
The village’s appeal is still lingering before the court and just over a year ago, it approached the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD) and complained about a number of violations under the Amerindian Act. UN CERD has since written to the government highlighting several rights violations and urged the government to take immediate steps to remedy the situation.
The villagers reported that Minister Sukhai visited the community once and that was several years ago. They said that during an engagement with her at a forum, the minister was wholly unaware of the development in the village as well.
“She [Sukhai] told me that it is better for the people of Chinese landing to get an agreement than for the people to live in [tar]paulin camps and I didn’t answer her. A person from APA [Amerindian Peoples Association] answered her and told her that minister what you are saying there was then, today go back to Chinese Landing and see what is taking place,” Toshao Orin Fernandes explained.
…investigation
Last week Stabroek News travelled to the community where it was related that approximately 500 miners are occupying the mining blocks within the community, threatening both the health and livelihood of the community members. On its visit to the mines, this newspaper observed that the deepest mining pit is approximately 500 ft deep – which is no longer considered sub-surface mining.
Fernandes accompanied this newspaper to the pit and he was shocked by the devastation. What also stood out was the fact that the toshao had to seek permission to visit the mines from the operators there although it falls within the community. Fernandes explained that it was necessary since the miners had threatened them with prosecution for trespassing on several occasions.
The road leading to the mines has severely deteriorated and according to the Village Council, the residents had been maintaining it because neither Vieira nor the government is interested in doing so.
Also, the environmental impacts of mining at Tassawini are visible. The miners there are using mercury to extract the gold and it is released into the Tassawini Creek, which flows into the savannahs and into Huri Creek.
“…the tailing [residue from mercury] runs into our big savannah and spread in to there and then it run into the Tassawini Creek and then the Tassawini Creek runs straight into Huri Creek. This Huri Creek is our natural boundary, it runs all the way back to Kariako and then it comes into Barama. So the tailing whatever you use there it has to run into Huri Creek even if you bar it off and it break away it runs straight into Huri Creek and into Barama,” Fernandes had said.
Those creeks and the savannah are the fishing grounds for Chinese Landing people as well as their main water sources. Now they are forced to look at alternatives owing to the pollution from mining. Fernandes had tested for above-normal levels of mercury in his system and had to undergo treatment.
Yesterday, Fernandes told Stabroek News that officers from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) as well as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are in the community responding to “a report in the newspaper.”
“They arrived here about 3[pm] this afternoon. They came and stop by me and said that they come to conduct an investigation on an article in the papers. That is what they came based on to see the environment, safety, tailing, discharge and some other things in the mines. I said okay and y’all are welcome,” he said.
Fernandes related that he asked the officers whether the Village Council can accompany them to the mines, but was told that “they prefer to do it officially[and] them ain’t want the miners to feel they picking sides and the whole thing about avoiding conflicts and so.”
However, he said that they observed that the officers are being transported by relatives of the miners.
“They came up with the family for people that working in the mines so I tell them say y’all ain’t picking sides or whatever but y’all come up with them people boat and them [officers] say them ain’t know that. But it is them people boat that deh in the mines,” Fernandes observed.
He added “They said that they will go in and do their investigation and when they come back they will report to us and they talked little more and they left. I told them we have a guest house and they are welcomed to stay there. They said that they prefer to be somewhere that have Wi-Fi where they could use so they gone up to Tassawini Landing to where the shops were.”
He said that the team included three officers from the GGMC and two from EPA. They are expected to go up to the mines today but Fernandes said that the miners have already been tipped off and are removing illegal machinery.
“The miners started to hide up some of their things since yesterday and today to prepare for the team,” he lamented.
The community of Chinese Landing remains adamant that the government issued the mining permits in contravention of the laws and they should be revoked. However, they are also aware of the government’s refusal to revoke the permits.
For now, the community of Chinese Landing is waiting to see what UN CERD recommends and is also hoping that government can act. They have also written to CERD, following the July 15 deadline set for the government to respond to CERD, informing that no remedial action has been taken by the government.
