-petrol bombs thrown by residents, police respond with tear gas
By Subhana Shiwmangal
A months-long standoff over the government’s appeal for Mocha Arcadia squatters to make way for a road ended yesterday with seven houses being torn down leaving 32 persons homeless.
The Mocha Arcadia squatters were warned since October 9 last year that they had to move to make way for an East Bank road link. The government had said it had made offers of housing and land but that these were refused and the squatters had made unreasonable demands at the instigation of the opposition. Up to Tuesday they defied attempts by the Ministry of Housing to evict them and a standoff developed with dozens of residents and members of the opposition arriving on the scene.
Yesterday’s four-hour standoff attracted a gathering of approximately 300 residents, along with Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton, and Members of Parliament.
During the standoff, residents attempted to prevent the excavator from demolishing the structures and bridges by pelting petrol bombs, bottles, and bricks, causing the excavator to briefly catch afire. The police, who were present at the scene, responded by firing tear gas into the angry crowd of residents who retaliated by hurling more bottles and bricks.
About 15 Mocha residents including squatters, APNU+AFC members and a MP, were seen trying to stop the police and the excavator operator from proceeding further so that the remaining squatters could have time to remove their belongings from the buildings slated for destruction. A member of one of the families being evicted was arrested and taken to the Providence Police Station after trying to save her home from being demolished. Some squatters were able to save their refrigerators, washing machines, mattresses, stoves and other appliances while other were not that fortunate.
A relative of Anita Beaton, one of the squatters refusing to move and who is also the owner of Shevon’s wholesale and retail beverage shop, told Stabroek News that she had been arrested for assaulting a police officer. The man said that at approximately 10 am, the police came with the operator of the excavator and had the shop bulldozed. He added that Beaton had refused to come out of the house and she “barely” pushed the officer and he had her arrested and locked up at the Providence Police’s Station. He also noted that the seven persons remaining are business people and posited that the spot that the government had offered Beaton is located at the back of Great Diamond and that it is impossible to do business there. He said that all the remaining business people want is a better negotiation, as the money offered is not enough.
Another of the seven persons that remained and who wished not to be named, said he was a cattle rearer. His home was demolished at about 11 am and he lamented that there was insufficient time for him to save the things inside of his house. He only managed to gather up what was outside. He contended that at the age of 50 it’s hard to change his whole lifestyle from rearing cattle which is the only trade he knows.
According to the man, he was told by the government to sell his cattle because no land was being provided for rearing. He said that the money the government is offering can’t work out for the people here who have businesses and that the remaining people in Mocha are willing to move but they need adequate compensation. He further added that if at least $60 million each is given to the remaining squatters that will be good because of the business they have. He didn’t gave a direct answer as to what he and his four children, age 17,14, 12 and 10 would do since his house has been demolished, but so far he’s willing to accept the move once there is adequate compensation by the government. He opined that the government should put the people’s interest first because people’s livelihood is what matters.
A different approach
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Norton is of the view that the government should have taken a different approach toward the squatters. He added that what happened yesterday shows that the government is destructive in what they did because the understanding the residents had is that they would negotiate the compensation given.
“A negotiation involves two sides, ordinary people wouldn’t know much about the value of property… they should have had their lawyers and it should’ve been properly done. I wouldn’t call that a negotiation because the government used their power to bully poor people and move them off the land. That’s a wicked act and it is evident that it is racist to me because when they approached other ethnicity, they don’t operate like that. When people break up things at Mon Repos, they didn’t charge anyone, they let them negotiate in the Court room. First thing they did was to bring out the Guyana Police Force who took orders from them to demolish the squatters’ homes.”
Stabroek News spoke to Mark Hyman who had accepted the offer of land from the government but whose livestock remained in the Mocha squatting area. He said that right now because of the demolishing of the houses, the animals have scattered and hopefully when everything is settled he will get them back. He noted that he’s now hearing that farm land will be offered to those who are rearing livestock and he will accept it.
On Tuesday, the Mocha Arcadia squatters had defied attempts by the Ministry of Housing to evict them and a standoff developed with dozens of residents and members of the opposition arriving on the scene.
The seven-hour standoff attracted a gathering of approximately 200 residents, During the standoff the street was blocked after a bridge, store room, and concrete porch were bulldozed.
Beaton, had her bridge, store room, and concrete porch of her shop demolished by an excavator on the orders of the Ministry of Housing and Water (MoHW). They were not able to proceed with the other demolitions because of the protesters.
The squatters’ contention is that they are not being compensated properly and that the road project is not being affected by their presence. They also insist that their lands are ancestral lands.
Minister of Housing Collin Croal on November 30 had made a final plea to the remaining Mocha Arcadia squatters who haven’t taken up the move-in-ready house deal.
Croal said that government’s recent offer to the five squatters whose homes are an encumbrance to the alignment path for the new road is in no way rewarding the unlawful act, but it was providing a humanitarian solution.
Pointing to the efforts made to remove the squatters, Croal informed that since 2008 the PPP/C had been trying to engage those living illegally along the proposed road alignment. Those efforts continued up to 2015, to no avail.
The group had initially agreed to move but then, according to Croal, the issue got political. “The Mocha issue took on a political twist… an anti-developmental twist because it seems that the opposition doesn’t want rapid growth. They encouraged the persons to not accept, without a solution. They didn’t even encourage the people to come in and engage us,” he lamented.
He said that one opposition parliamentarian has been “very confrontational” and without reason wants the squatters to remain in the location.
The Ministry of Housing and Water, one month ago, had offered houses in the Little Diamond Housing Scheme, on the East Bank of Demerara, to the squatters remaining at Mocha, while warning that their homes would be demolished if they did not remove from the path of the major road project.
Accompanying Morton yesterday were MPs Sherod Duncan, Nima Flue-Bess, Ganesh Mahipaul, Coretta McDonald, Amanza Walton- Desir, Roysdale Forde, and PNCR Public Relations Officer, Shanieka Haynes.
