The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) yesterday announced that it is preparing to file charges against “raiders” engaged in illegal mining activities in the Marudi Mountain area of Region Nine, while calling a recent confrontation that saw a policeman brutalise a woman and her young son “regrettable”.
In a statement yesterday, GGMC said that with support from the police force it is currently removing over 14 illegal dredges and other mining equipment from the area.
“The operators of these dredges were engaged in the removal of Guyana’s minerals and evasion of payment of royalties and taxes on the minerals extracted.
To date not a single gram of gold has been declared by any of the operators and there are no records of production which is a breach of the Mining Regulations,” it said, while adding that all the minerals removed were illegally sold.
The removal is the final step after several requests for the raiders to voluntarily remove failed, GGMC noted.
This statement came even as both police and the commission are in the midst of their own investigations into the confrontation between the police and several persons on the Marudi trail, which led to a woman and a child being beaten by a law enforcer. Video footage of the beating has evoked outrage.
The police were accompanying a GGMC team to remove the illegal miners when the confrontation took place.
The GGMC quoted its Commissioner Rickford Vieira as saying “the unfortunate confrontation” was “a first and regrettable”.
He further said that the Marudi incident highlights the dangers that the officers of the GGMC face in executing their duties and pleaded for greater cooperation, while adding that despite the incident, the agency will continue to work to fulfil its mandate.
Up to press time yesterday, Verona Prince, the woman who was beaten, was still to give a statement to the police as she had taken her 10-year-old son, who was born in Brazil, to his homeland to receive medical treatment. Prince and her husband, Michael, are both Guyanese and were born and raised in Region One but moved to Lethem, where they have settled. On Friday last, Michael and their 21-year-old son Lorenzo gave statements to the police detailing their ordeal.
Acting Police Commis-sioner Leroy Brumell could not be reached for an update on the police investigations up to press time, even though attempts were made to contact him all day.
Speaking with Stabroek News from Boa Vista, a Prince family member yesterday informed that authorities there also wanted a statement of events, since the child is a national.
As Prince and her family await the outcome of the police investigation, they say that all they want is justice. “We want some justice for the inhumane way we were treated there. Look how long and not a word… only to hear today that we are the bad people and we will be charged,” the family member added.
They are now questioning what would happen to the policeman who inflicted injuries on the child. “We read on the news that we will be charged and we were illegal and all of this but nothing is being said about the police [who] did this to us. What of him? Shouldn’t he be charged too or is it because he is a police?” the family member said.
Meanwhile, one of the miners who was served with papers to cease works and remove from the area, scoffed at the GGMC’s claim that no gold was declared and that there were no records of production. The miner said that many of the miners at Marudi sell their gold to traders recognised by the GGMC. “Lies! These people serious? I know that the Guyanese miners sell their gold to the traders.
If they say we don’t come to town and go Gold Board then that might be lil true but the traders get licence so is the same thing,” he said.
“You have a lot of Brazos there too, so must be them they talking about because they don’t sell no gold here. They should go after them not we who born here on this land and who gat to turn back and beg for some to work…this is not fair,” he said.
GGMC stated that dating back to December of last year, a formal complaint was lodged by Romanex, the licensed owner of the Marudi concession. It added that it responded and the raiders were given an official notice to desist and remove from the area.
This was reiterated when Vieira and a Manager of Mines and other officers further met the illegal miners in February, it said, while adding that no promise was ever made to the miners to have them allocated any portion of Romanex concession.
According to GGMC, it was after these steps failed that it proceeded to the area to remove the “illegal occupants” with the help of police.
The GGMC also rejected claims that the land was being neglected since there is an active review of the Romanex operations.
Even if the concession is abandoned, Vieira was quoted as saying, it gave no one the right to take it over.
