VP Jagdeo blames junior level officials for not acting accordingly in Chinese Landing fiasco

Aug 21, 2022 News

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…Human Rights Association says Government not doing enough     

By Zena Henry

Kaieteur News – Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has suggested that junior level state agents may be lapsing in their responsibilities and are allowing issues the Government expects them to handle to get out of hand, even as his administration had stated earlier that it has done all it could in relation to the pressing matter of miners’ invasion at the Amerindian Community of ‘Chinese Landing’, located in Region One. Jagdeo made the statement during a Press Conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Friday, as he weighed in on the years’ old contention and re-energised in the media for weeks now.

The Region One Community has been complaining for years about an influx of hundreds of gold miners destroying their environment, impeding their way of life, and issuing threats against the wellbeing of the location’s occupants, despite legislation such as the Amerindian Act, being in place to protect their sovereignty over ancestral lands.

The Vice President said that during the recently held National Toshao’s Council meeting, commitments to address the matter were given to the representatives of ‘Chinese Landing’ in a special engagement between himself, President Irfaan Ali, and other stakeholders. He said he explained to the Toshao that throughout the issue, the Government and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), which oversees mining activity in the country, have been on the side of the Community. He noted that it was the miner who was granted the permit to mine within the boundaries of the Amerindian Village that took the matter to the Caribbean Court of Justice and secured a ruling that his operations could not be stopped because of the subsequent coming to be of the Amerindian Act. He said that the court’s ruling was that the GGMC could not enforce the Amerindian Act, only breaches committed against it. As such, Jagdeo said that President Ali, among other things, ordered a surprise visit into the Community by GGMC officials to catch the miners in the act since claims are that they would be tipped off and pack up before officials get on site.

Jagdeo said he was surprised, however, to see in the media the same miners taking the state agents around the Community, before lamenting an apparent coziness between the two sides. He said however, that the Government is not going to tolerate any bullying or “any violation of people’s rights” and suggested that “this is happening; it seems, with complicity of some individuals at the junior level within the Government.”

In a public statement, the Guyana Human R

ights Association (GHRA) suggested that the Government is not doing enough to address the ‘Chinese Landing’ matter and called them out for a relaxed posture toward the issue. The Association said that the people of ‘Chinese Landing’ are still coping with the shocking statement by Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukai, that there is nothing more the Government can do “to deter marauding miners laying waste to their Community.” It said that the notion that the protective provisions of the Amerindian Act remain non-applicable decades after coming into force in 2008 is patently absurd.

It said that abuse by miners is precisely why the need for the provisions of the Act was generated and that, “the logic of the legal argument is similar to that of drivers, whose recklessness provoked the introduction of speed limits, claiming exemption from them because they were driving prior to the law, or domestic abusers making the same argument because they beat women before domestic violence became illegal.”

The GHRA said that instead of dismissing the posture of the Amerindian Act not being enforced on the miner because his permit came into being before the law, “the Government has suddenly become helpless.” They said that “the official ‘helplessness’ is further aggravated by the institutionalised hypocrisy of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission which has a revolving door relationship with leading miners and whose ‘investigative missions’ and legal actions against errant miners are nothing more than a charade.” The Human Rights Association continued that “even if the legal judgment that the original license issued in 1995 remained valid for the life of the license, why were the provisions of the Amerindian Act of 2008 not enforced upon subsequent renewals of the license?” They said that apart from the licensing provisions, Article 14 of the Act is equally clear in empowering Village Council as the local law-making authority with respect to the conduct of people in the community, including the 500-odd miners.

“Those powers include by-laws relating to environmental destruction, pollution of streams, savannah and creeks and mercury poisoning of fishing grounds – all of which are alleged to be widespread and a proven health hazard to members of the community. All these abuses provide extensive grounds for a range of interventions from Ministries and Agencies to support the community,” the Association submitted. They said neither the Government nor the GGMC have apparently learnt any lessons from Baramita, “the other Carib Community in Region One, decimated socially and environmentally, a decade ago by mining interests and coastlanders settlers.”

The Association is nonetheless adamant that while the Minister of Amerindian Affairs was making the ‘helplessness’ case for ‘Chinese Landing’, announcements by the Ministry of Finance on reduced and removed taxes offered the real reason for Government’s lack of interest.  The GHRA contended that “the financial measures are intended to divert attention from the dangerous, uncertain and accident-riddled conditions under which small miners operate. Murky licensing arrangements are grossly unfair and ensure quality lands are reserved for the coterie of miners, friends and foreigners who control the industry. In other words, Government inaction with respect to mining is consistent with a national policy of monetising natural resources for the benefit of the highest bidders.”

The organisation said that even ‘the 2030 Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS)’ the centre-piece of Guyana’s climate policy, is silent on the environmental and social cost of mining. Money making from mining cannot be justified in terms of the national interest, the public purse, or in the interest of the majority of citizens.  National assets inherited and owned by the nation in common are converted into private property for a fraction of their real worth. Such profligate behaviour is particularly inexplicable in light of the enormous wealth Guyana is set to earn from oil and gas production.  Moreover, with mining degradation the major cause of deforestation, why is Guyana sacrificing its forests, rivers, wildlife, and the wellbeing of its indigenous communities?” the Association questioned.

It continued, “The equally timid response of the National Toshaos’ Council (NTC) to the appeals of the Toshao of ‘Chinese Landing’ also highlight the extent to which that body has been stripped of its independence by the ruling party meddling in its elections procedures.”

“Rather than promote the NTC as the official voice of Guyana’s First Peoples, the organisation is being reduced to the role of a Government Cheer-Leader. The very opposite trend is what the nation requires. Voices of the professions, trade unions, faith-based bodies, sports, business and commerce need to off-set the toxic polarisation of Parliamentary politics and the undermining of independent voices,” the GHRA added.

It said too that the Government has attracted international criticism for its failure to address the mining abuses in ‘Isseneru’ and ‘Chinese Landing’, but “unfortunately, the diplomatic community by-passed the opportunity to reinforce that criticism in its recent statement on’ International Day of Indigenous People’. Their message focused on indigenous women and its value and impact would have been enhanced considerably had it referenced the stress posed for indigenous women by the increased presence of itinerant miners in their Communities.”

 

 

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