By Joseph Allen
At the end of its five-day meeting, the National Toshaos Conference (NTC) yesterday failed to take a stand on illegal mining in the indigenous community of Chinese Landing with the chair of the body stating that the matter was in court.
Toshao of Chinese Landing, Orin Fernandes expressed disappointment at the manner in which their land issue was handled as there was no progress on the matter.
The NTC is the main forum in which Amer-indian issues are dealt with.
On July 21, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued Resolution 41/2023, through which it granted precautionary measures in favour of members of the Indigenous Carib Com-munity of Chinese Land-ing, who it said are “currently at serious, urgent risk of suffering irreparable harm to their human rights”.
The Commission had asked the government to advise it within 20 days from the ruling as to the steps taken. Aside from a `fact-finding’ mission to Chinese Landing which the village council derided, the government has not stated publicly if it has replied to the IACHR and the main problem – the presence of miner Wayne Vieira on the community’s titled lands – remains unsettled.
A statement from the IACHR said that the petition before it indicates that the members of Chinese Landing (Region 1) are facing threats, harassment and acts of violence in the context of their opposition to mining activities in their lands. The representatives alleged repetitive incidents of threats and harassment, which would occur “daily” or “regularly”; advised of acts against persons in particular vulnerability such as aggression to a young man, attempted rape of a minor, and threat with a knife against an elder person; as well as the extensive use of firearms, with firing incidents. The IACHR said that Chinese Landing residents have also received collective death threats, reportedly perpetrated by mine workers. For example, it said that the toshao, who is the leader of the community, was allegedly warned that if the village wins its lands back, the miners would not leave easily and people would die.
The decision of the IACHR had come despite an attempt by the Guyana Government to counter the arguments by Chinese Landing.
The toshaos conference which concluded yesterday, was attended by over 200 Amerindian leaders from villages across the ten administrative regions. It ran from August 28 to September 1 at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, at Liliendaal, Georgetown under the theme: “Advanc-ing sustainable village development in a low carbon economy.”
According to most leaders, there appeared to be two main issues brought up during the conference. They were 1) the revising of the Amerindian Act 2006, which the Govern-ment assured would be dealt with following extensive consultation and 2) the issue of Chinese Landing. This includes the protection of Indigenous lands, lack of finance, harassment by miners, and the call for the mining of gold by Vieira to be halted.
This matter reportedly was not on the agenda of the conference but a number of Toshaos raised it. Toshao Fernandes was given an opportunity to present the village’s case on the opening day.
With a national stage in the capital city, Fernandes waded into the government at a closed session after President Irfaan Ali had spoken at the opening.
Fernandes called for solidarity from the 200 indigenous leaders gathered and demanded that controversial miner Vieira depart from the village’s Tassawini lands.
The Toshao traced the origins of the controversy and called for the revocation of Vieira’s permits in the north west village.
Fernandes argued that years of inaction by the government had forced Chinese Landing to approach the IACHR.
He said that 2021 was the first time that Chinese Landing initiated legal proceedings against Vieira and the GGMC.
“Our case was thrown out in the High Court without even a hearing and is currently sitting before the Court of Appeal. Our people have been suffering and continue to suffer.
“It is the suffering of our people that caused us to seek redress at the level of the …IACHR. We approached the IACHR on March 8, 2023 seeking precautionary measures to protect us”, Fernandes said.
He added that the village is grateful that, on July 21, 2023, the IACHR found that villagers are in a “serious and urgent situation” with our rights to life and personal integrity at serious risk. As a result, IACHR requested the Government to:
-take the necessary measures to protect villagers’ rights to life and personal integrity with a cultural, gender-based, and age-appropriate perspective to prevent threats, harassment, and other acts of violence against us;
-consult and agree upon the measures to be adopted with us and our representatives; and
-report on the actions taken to investigate the events that led to the adoption of this precautionary measure, so as to prevent such events from reoccurring.
Hope
Fernandes yesterday said that after his presentation on the 29th of August, there was hope that the important matter of the Chinese Landing would have been dealt with. Furthermore, he noted that several district councils also supported a joint resolution by the entire NTC on the matter. Unfortunately, the resolution was never presented and the matter was never mentioned again.
“I felt that it was not given attention to throughout the course of this week. As the leader of the community, it makes me feel like you know, traveling all this distance to come out here with your issue and not getting a positive answer or satisfaction. It left me wondering what the next move is because when I go back to the village, the people will ask me you know, Toshao, what’s the next move? What positive word have you bring back for us? and definitely, I won’t have anything to say. So, I kinda feel disappointed.” Fernandes told Stabroek News.
Chairman of the NTC, Derrick John told Stabroek News yesterday that the matter is before the court and the council cannot interfere in the matter.
“The issue is in the court and we have to be very careful how we address that because the NTC does not have the authority over the court. So, we have to see how it goes.”
In response, Fernandes pointed out that this is a social matter and the council should be able to have a word.
“I’m kinda disappointed in that even so because those are social issues. Even though there is a court matter there are social issues that I think the NTC should play a part in supporting since we are all Toshaos and Indigenous people together”, he said.
