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Amerindian leaders to discuss land rights, other concerns in Georgetown

Jul 21, 2011 News

Amerindian leaders from across the country are being brought to Georgetown next week and are slated to discuss vexing land rights issues and other concerns.
Called Toshaos, the Amerindian leaders will meet for five days from Monday, and will hold discussions with President Bharrat Jagdeo and Government Ministers on a range of issues.
The government spends millions of dollars to bring the Toshaos to Georgetown for the annual conference organized by the National Toshaos Council.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, said that among the issues that will be discussed is land titling and extensions.  There have been major disagreements with Toshaos associated with the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) on these issues.
Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai, confirmed last week that funds from the forest-saving deal between Guyana and Norway intended to be used to speed up land demarcation has not yet been received.
The government intends to use $600 million to get the job done for this year.
With the expectation of the funds, the Ministry has set out its programme for this year. This includes demarcating another eight titled Amerindian communities, titling another 13 communities, and reviewing applications for extensions.
Sukhai defended the government’s record on Amerindian land rights issues, saying that what has been accomplished since the PPP/C took office is a “significant achievement.” She said that in 1992, there were 74 villages that held titles to their land, but today there are 96 titled Amerindian communities.
In addition, she said in 1992 just one Amerindian community was demarcated, while today this is the case with 77 titled communities.
If the demarcation of the eight communities for this year goes ahead, that will leave just five communities to be demarcated.  However, she said these communities have not approached the government to have their lands demarcated.
Sukhai said the government does not demarcate Amerindian lands unless they ask, and she was adamant that no community that has requested demarcation was forced to do so by the government.
She lamented that land demarcation efforts are being stymied by one organisation (supposedly the Amerindian People’s Association which she once protested against) and is causing “great stress” for the communities awaiting demarcation.

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