(De Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – The government was forced to close off the area around Maripaston in Para after things got out of hand because of rampant gold fever in that area. People started using dynamite posing a threat to others while people who did not belong to the area came to it. Conflicts arose over demarcated territories. The area is part of the economic zone of the Indigenous village of Pikin Saron. The only licenses granted regard tree felling, not gold mining. District Commissioner Jerry Miranda called in the help of police to close off the area after the escalations. The matter is now with the gold ordering commission and the President has ordered the area to be closed off for the time being.
Miranda stresses that it is not the intention to clear the area but legalize these small-scale miners. Chairman Gerold Dompig of the Commission for the Ordering of the Gold Sector (COG) went to the area to investigate the matter yesterday and conducted orientating talks with stakeholders.
