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.
