The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) is calling on government to focus on implementing the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) precautionary measures request in favour of Chinese Landing rather than expending its energy on what it says are baseless assertions.
The indigenous advocacy body was responding to a press release issued by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance (MPAG) on August 2, 2023. The APA, in its own release on August 3rd, outlined a number of areas of concern, while acknowledging that it is “cognizant of the government’s strategy to… redirect attention from its prolonged inaction on addressing the issues in Chinese Landing and instead attacking the Association”.
The APA reiterated its call for Government to work with the community to agree on a way forward consistent with its rights as an Indigenous community in international law, and not just by reference to a deficient 2006 Amerindian Act or prejudicial interpretations of the mining laws. The release further called on the Government to “stop trying to divide our communities” by blaming them for the problems “caused by mining in our country”. Regarding the project with the International Land and Tenure Facility, the APA says that it was surprised to hear that the Government believes that the APA has an “unwillingness to work with them and the National Toshaos Council” (NTC). The APA says the records will show that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed at the commencement of Phase One of the project with the then-Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs and then-NTC, and several meetings held.
The APA’s release noted that for the current Ministry of Amerindian Affairs (MoAA), after one meeting in October 2020, that Minister, Pauline Sukhai, did not respond to requests for meetings to discuss the Tenure Facility project or potential areas of collaboration, as was the understanding. At the October meeting, the APA team, consisting of President Lemmel Benson Thomas, Executive Director Jean La Rose, Policy Officer Sharon La Rose, Governance and Rights Coordinator Laura George, and GIS Specialist and Forest Policy Officer Michael Mc Garrell, met with and updated Sukhai on the APA’s priority areas of work. (Ironically, the APA says, it was during this same interaction that the Chinese Landing situation was raised with the Minister who claimed that the Chinese Landing Village Council had not been forthcoming with updates on their situation.) At a subsequent meeting on June 16, 2021, the APA recalled that its Tenure Facility Officer, Sharon Atkinson, personally visited the Ministry, and waited almost three hours before being able to deliver another letter to Sukhai. Atkinson, in her report to the APA, pointed out that Sukhai read the letter in her presence and suggested that she may be able to meet with the APA to discuss the project in mid-July, but such a meeting never took place.
Reminded
Regarding reference to the NTC the APA reminded Teixeira that a letter dated July 31, 2023, and addressed to the NTC, requested a meeting to discuss areas of cooperation and collaboration for the upcoming National Toshaos Conference. The APA said it was of the opinion that such a meeting would serve as an invaluable opportunity to outline an indigenous peoples’ agenda for the forthcoming year and foster a stronger partnership between both organizations. On another matter of major import, the APA said that when Government first signed an agreement with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to undertake Amerindian Land Titling Project(s) with Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund funding, its aim was to address all land titling issues by 2015. But now, eight years later, the APA said, the Minister has identified 2024 to be the year when Government intends to address all outstanding titling requests.
“We look forward to the day when all indigenous peoples in Guyana feel that their land rights have been satisfactorily and adequately legally recognized by the Government, and we stand ready to support this work in any way we can,” said the APA.
The APA release also addressed its ART-TREES carbon credits complaint and noted that it is currently filing an appeal regarding the decision made on its complaint, and referred the Government to previous press statements on the matter. Further, the APA release said that ninety percent of deforestation in Guyana was caused by mining, and that wanton forest destruction has wrought havoc, clearly visible from air, on Indigenous traditional lands.
“The steep environmental and social costs of mining have for decades been externalized on Indigenous peoples and communities,” by what the APA says is, “a very small and politically powerful group in our society”. This small group, according to the APA, holds most of the mining permits handed out over most of Guyana without any regard for the Indigenous Peoples who belong to those lands. The APA acknowledged that some indigenous people do mine, but categorized this activity as ‘small scale’ and when engaged is primarily for indigenous livelihoods. The release was adamant that indigenous peoples should not be held responsible for the vast scale of destruction caused by mining nor for illegal mining.
The APA said that despite attacks against the body, the APA will continue, as it has always done, to support the people of Chinese Landing and the many other communities experiencing similar, and in some cases worse, problems. It adverted to the situations in Baramita, Arau, Kuru-tuku, Tasserene, Kangaruma, Isseneru and around Marudi Mountain. Most of these situations are ongoing, despite decades of increasingly desperate pleas for assistance. As is its operating procedures, the APA says it will continue to seek collaboration with the government and other relevant stakeholders. The rights body says while it has always advised indigenous communities that the APA has no authority to allocate titles to indigenous communities, “We can, however, and do support communities to map, demarcate, and make plans to protect their traditional lands.” The body says titling is, as the Government acknowledged, “an obligation of the Government under the Amerindian Act, and therefore our efforts in supporting communities are to ensure that the process flows as smoothly as possible, given the numerous errors that have been made in the past.”
The APA says that it will continue to advocate for concrete and permanent resolutions for the people of Chinese Landing and would extend this to as many indigenous communities across Guyana as resources would support.
