The miners at Omai and injustice

Jan 11, 2012 Letters

Dear Editor,
Please permit me the space to bring to the public and the powers that be the real truth concerning the eviction of miners from the former Omai Gold Mines.
Contrary to statements made by the head of G.G.M.C in the Stabroek News dated December 30, 2011 and January 5, 2012, that all miners were there illegally, nothing can be further from the truth. I am a member of the Syndicate. On May 6, 2011, twenty-four miners were given legal permission to work in part of Omai area known as the ‘Bone Yard’ from none other than the President of Guyana for a specific period.
Due to our investment and large declaration of gold and diamond we were given two further extensions; the last ending in December 2011.
We were visited on site by the Chairman of the G.G.M.C, Mr. Joe Singh who told us that the permission to work Bone Yard was an election gift by the then President. At that meeting the Chairman informed us that when our time at Omai had expired we would be given two weeks to relocate to the lands that the G.G.M.C made available to us.
We were given barren lands in the Koburi area of the Mazaruni. At a meeting , in the G.G.M.C boardroom with the Prime Minister, Joe Singh and Mrs Livan the legal miners were told that the engineer with responsibility for Omai said that due to the depth of the land and the width of the ravine, only 10 dredges will be allowed to operate.
We were twenty-four owners but ten dredges were compiled and operated. However the G.G.M.C officers allowed dozens of dredges in the pit making it unsafe and dangerous.
On Christmas Eve Day, G.G.M.C officers and goons backed by heavily armed policemen served us an ultimatum stating that we must wash our boxes on or before December 30, 2011 and leave the area on December 31, 2011.
We were intimidated by the policemen who kept firing their weapons indiscriminately, as if they were in a war zone. I personally saw G.G.M.C goons cut down sluice boxes and camps with chain saws; camps were burnt even before owners removed their tarpaulins and yet the bosses at G.G.M.0 are denying that peoples’ property was damaged. They were in direct contact with their officers via cell phones and two-way radios.
A1
In the evicting phase there was one law for the rich and one for the poor. On January 4, 2012 the sluice boxes and camp of a very wealthy mining family was still standing and they are in Omai illegally since they are not part of the Syndicate.
Mr. Editor, the allocation of mining land and the treatment of small miners represent the greatest injustice in Guyana.
I call on our New President and the combined Opposition to revisit the Mining Act and to bring justice to the most vibrant sector of our economy.
Miner

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The miners at Omai and injustice

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