Anyone who thought Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai could be depended upon to work in the interest of an Indigenous community blighted by the presence of illegal miners, should think again. “There is nothing more that we can do at this point,” she told this newspaper about the distressing situation in Chinese Landing, Region One: “The Ministry have done everything that we could have done to assist them with all domestic remedies. They chose to go to the court.”
Ms Sukhai went on to say that they had taken the community through the “process”, and that “We represented them to the last where they chose to go to the court.” This representation appears to have consisted in arranging a meeting between the Village Council and Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat, although she did say there were other meetings after that. Significantly she said that the villagers had other representatives looking after their interests, “so maybe they will tell you what they’re doing for them.” This was an indirect reference to the Amerindian Peoples’ Association, an organisation to which the government has always taken great exception.
The Minister is not the only one who appears to have withdrawn support from Chinese Landing, whose inhabitants are watching helplessly as their titled lands are destroyed. Chair of the National Toshaos Council Derrick John had earlier told this newspaper that the new leadership of the NTC had identified the issues at Chinese Landing and Isseneru (Region Seven) as being urgent and a priority. He had also said that one of the first things the Council wanted to do was to go and assess the situation for themselves, and they were aiming to visit those communities by the end of August.
Mr John had also mentioned that he had raised the matter with President Irfaan Ali, and the latter had indicated a team had been sent in to Chinese Landing to meet with the miners and villagers in order to make an assessment. The NTC Chair thought that measures had been put in place to address some of those concerns. Stabroek News was unable to ascertain whether a team had in fact gone in, but certainly if they did do so any measures they put in place are not much in evidence.
Be that as it may, Mr John seems to have forgotten the commitments he made at the end of the NTC conference in July, because he is now saying that the Chinese Landing community should formally write the Council requesting intervention to address the violation of their rights. This has the stamp of coastal bureaucratic delaying tactics, and it opens him up to the suspicion of whether he is not reflecting the influence of the government.
As it is there was some scepticism when he became Chair of the NTC because of the perception that he was sympathetic to the government. His previous stints in the post had been subject to criticism, more particularly his May 2014 address to the 13th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. There he had said that free, prior and informed consent was exercised in Guyana, despite the fact that the government had frequently been accused of bypassing this requirement, including at Chinese Landing.
Additionally, Indigenous leaders and activists were particularly concerned that in his address Mr John had said, “The National Toshaos Council is concerned about the irresponsible action of the Amerindian Peoples Association which has influenced a particular village to advance a case on land and mining issues, to the IACHR without exhausting all domestic remedies. The National Toshaos Council wishes to state that the case referred to is misleading and does not represent the true situation, as Guyana has one of the more sophisticated processes of securing land rights for Amerindian peoples.”
This was actually a reference to Isseneru, not Chinese Landing, although the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights later found that here too villagers’ rights had been violated by the government. Given his history Mr John should not be surprised if a question mark lingers over his motives for his volte face.
Chinese Landing had been granted title to its lands under the old Amerindian Act of 1976. That title had been reissued in 1991 under the State Lands Act as well as in 2018 pursuant to the Land Registry Act. Despite this, and despite the fact that the Village Council had refused miner Mr Wayne Vieira permission to mine in Tassawini, the gold-bearing portion of their land where the villagers themselves were mining, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission still went ahead and allocated mining blocks to him in breach of the 2006 Amerindian Act. Under that Act small and medium-scale miners have to obtain the agreement of two-thirds of a Village Council to mine on titled land.
Having committed the breach in the first place, the GGMC then tried to rectify matters by issuing a Cease Work Order to Mr Vieira in 2010, because he had no agreement with the Village Council. The Mines Officer who had issued the order considered it “absolutely necessary” for the maintenance of the public peace or for the protection of the rights of the State or private individuals. Mr Vieira then took the GGMC to court, winning the first round in the High Court, but losing on appeal. He subsequently took the matter to the CCJ, which upheld Justice Diana Insanally’s ruling in the High Court.
For some reason the Commission’s lawyers did not present evidence of Amerindian title to the court, but in the event the decision hinged on a more technical matter, namely, that the GGMC could not issue an order on the basis of a regulation in the Mines Act and apply it to a different statute, in this case the Amerindian Act. The CCJ did say, however, that this would not prevent the GGMC from dealing with disputes arising under the Amerindian law if it could be regarded as also being a dispute under the Mining Regulations. However, said the court, that did not apply in this instance. The justices also found that the law required the Cease Work Order to be absolutely necessary, which had not been established or even contemplated by the Mines Officer or the Commission.
Following this blow the Chinese Landing community went to the High Court again, which threw out the case without a hearing. It has since appealed, although that has made little progress in the system, and it is this matter presumably to which Minister Sukhai was referring.
In the meantime the situation at Chinese Landing is deteriorating to the point where miners backed by the police, no less, intimidate and threaten villagers, denying them access to their own lands so they can no longer earn a livelihood. In addition, the environmental and ecological consequences are a disaster, with mercury in the river systems making the usual sources of water for the inhabitants dangerous to use, and poisoning the fish.
There are now 500 miners in the area, this newspaper was told, and when one of our reporters went in to see what was happening the devastation was painfully apparent. He was accompanied by Toshao Fernandes who had to seek permission from the miners to go in even although they were working community lands, and even he was shocked by the extent of the destruction now. We reported that the newspaper had noted the deepest mining pit was approximately 500 ft in depth, which could hardly be described as sub-surface mining. In addition, the road leading to the mines had deteriorated badly, and our reporter was told by the Village Council that the residents had been maintaining it because neither the miners nor the government would do so.
After reading press reports three officers from the GGMC and two from the EPA have gone into the area and are due to visit the mines. However, the Toshao told this newspaper that the miners had already been tipped off and were removing illegal machinery. “The miners started to hide up some of their things since yesterday and today to prepare for the team,” he said.
It remains to be seen what their report will be, but what has been clear over many years is that the government really does not want to withdraw mining permits, even if those are in breach of the law; even if they are depriving the residents of a titled area of their livelihoods; even if they are compromising the health of villagers with their mercury so they cannot use the water or consume the fish; and even if they are destroying the environment. What is the point of reforming the Amerindian Act if the government will not enforce the provisions of the current one?
What has probably aggravated the government more is that presumably with help from the APA, Chinese Landing took its case to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Their report would not have made comfortable reading for Freedom House. The government was given the deadline of July 15 to respond, although it is not known what is in that response, assuming it was sent. What can be said is that pending the report from the EPA and GGMC, there have been no obvious moves to alleviate the situation in the community. The issues can certainly not be solved with meetings and accommodations between miners and residents brokered by this or that ministry; this requires a radical solution which should have been instituted long ago.
Those who govern in this land have to recognise that the Indigenous people are not to be regarded just as a block of potential voters at election time; they have rights.
