The show time of this one man band is over

Nov 03, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
Please permit me space in in your paper to respond to a letter carried in captiioned “ Chenapou’s Land demarcation problem is problem of its own making”. I wish to correct some non-factual information which has been placed in the public by one Mr. Peter Persaud.

On August 7th, 2015, when a technical meeting was purportedly held at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs (MoIPA) I was in my community , many miles away from Georgetown. I remember this clearly for it is the birthday of my son. I am not sure why Mr. Persaud continues to fabricate lies saying that I was there.

It seems that Mr. Persaud’s only intent is to sow discord among the indigenous peoples. Mr. Persaud must apologize to me and my community by the same means through which he is spreading lies. My interest is for that of my community. We have lived in our lands peacefully for many generations and now because of the Amerindian Land Titling Project we are put into a situation where our people are unhappy because of the failure of the relevant authorities to do proper groundwork to verify the social boundaries of communities.

The community’s basic right to giving its Free Prior and Informed Consent was denied; in violation of the Amerindian Act of 2006 and other international instruments to which Guyana has signed. Now as a result of the project about half of the population is within the boundaries of the Kariaparu’s demarcated lands -this Mr. Editor has proven problematic.
I am a proud student of the Amerindian Peoples Association. If it were not so then I may have been fooled by the likes of Mr. Peter Persaud who runs a one man organization. I wish that the relevant authorities can look into his organization to verify its legal status. To my knowledge he has been the president of TAAMOG for as long as I can remember.

Mr. Persaud needs to realize that his show time has ended and he is irrelevant in this time. He should remove himself quietly and enjoy the new dispensation, a time when Amerindians are more knowledgeable of their rights and are able to voice those rights.
Edward Mc Garrell
Toshao of Chenapou Village