Dear Editor,
I am glad to read that Toshao Orin Fernandes of Chinese Landing Amerindian Village has asked the National Toshaos’ Council (NTC) for a slot at the opening of the NTC’s conference on Monday 28 August to talk about the continuing illegal mining on Chinese Landing’s titled Village Lands. It has been over a month since the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures to Chinese Landing (https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/07/25/news/guyana/iachr-grants-protective-measures-to-chinese-landing-residents/). I have no doubt that toshao and NTC Chair Derrick John, and the Executive Members of the National Toshaos’ Council, will readily agree to Toshao Fernandes’ request.
SN reported NTC Chair Derrick John saying a year ago that “The core executive is new at the leadership of the NTC but we have so far identified that the issues at Isseneru and Chinese Landing (are) urgent and our priority. As you know those issues are before the courts but they were raised and we discussed it.” SN further reported: ‘John said that a team from the NTC would soon be meeting to formulate a work plan for its term after which a team would visit both Isseneru and Chinese Landing.” “We will discuss it at the NTC level. One of our first things that we would like to do is to go down on the ground to assess it for ourselves and reach out to the communities and to have a firsthand experience what’s happening and only then we would be in a better position to do whatever we can do to try to bring some comfort to the communities.” https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/07/20/news/guyana/chinese-landing-isseneru-issues-top-priorities-for-new-ntc-executive-chair/
I look forward to reading about the assessment of illegal mining in Chinese Landing done by the NTC and their actions to protect the community’s legal rights.
Sincerely,
Janette Bulkan
