Chenapau residents clash with police over mining at Kaieteur National Park

Oct 30, 2023 News

– “this is where we get our daily bread from”-village leader says

Kaieteur News – Dozens of residents of the Chenupau, a village within the Kaieteur National Park (KNP), clashed with police on Saturday after the lawmen told them to leave their mining operations within the protected area.

A screen grab of several armed police ranks at the village of Chenapau on Saturday.

Dozens of women were among the protestors at the mining site on Sunday.

According to reports, several police ranks, accompanied by the chief warden of the parks and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) descended on the community on Saturday and told the residents that they are mining within the protected area, and they must leave the site or face legal consequences.

The police were said to be acting on instructions passed by the GGMC and the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Toshao of Chenapau, Standford John told Kaieteur News yesterday that the villagers were granted permission by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Natural Resources to mine within the buffer zone which he noted is approximately one kilometer from the boundary line of the village.

One of the protestors at the mining site near Chenapau on Sunday.

According to the residents, they are working within an area which was identified by the GGMC following a survey. Following a skirmish with the authorities in 2017, the villagers had met with the Ministry of Natural Resources and the GGMC and were given a map of areas where they can work.

The residents staged a protest on Saturday, soon after they met with the police and GGMC officials. They also staged a protest at the mining site on Sunday.

John said the chief warden of the KNP met with the residents on Sunday but he noted that the situation remains unresolved. “Nothing was resolved at the meeting. The chief warden said if we don’t move, they will send for more forces to move us out from there,” he said.

He said the residents do not plan to move from the area and he noted that today, the villagers will return to the mining site. “We will wait and we really want to see the outcome because we do not plan to move,” he said. “We didn’t get no satisfaction from what he said,” the villager leader said of the meeting with the chief warden.

“He said if we don’t move, it will be like a repeat of 2017, but I said to him that we are closer to home, because last year they try to move us from another area and we did not move because we know our rights,” he noted.

John said the area where the residents are carrying out their mining activities is closer to the village and he noted that he attempted to explain this to the KNP warden. “But he don’t understand, he asking me if I know where is the buffer zone, where the boundary fall for the national park, so I asked him why he asking me that, it should be the other way around, because I was born and I grow here so I know where the boundary lines fall,” John noted.

On Saturday, the police were accompanied by a group of labourers who the village leader said will assist the GGMC in removing their equipment. “They are intimidating us, this is where we get our daily bread,” he said.

The villagers noted that they met with Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat and Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai during an event at Mahdia recently and the issue was raised with the ministers. They said the government officials told them that they can mine in the area. “We didn’t sign to anything but we told them about the issue and they said we can mine there,” he said.

In May 2017, the police arrested and charged 20 people from Chenapau for illegally mining within the KNP.

“It has been decided that as an act of good faith Government will not prosecute the charges against the more than 20 persons arrested on Sunday May 28, 2017 for mining within the iconic Kaieteur National Park,” the Ministry of Natural Resources said in a statement at the time.

The charges were dropped after the ministry met with the GGMC and several other government agencies.

At the time, the National Toshaos Council (NTC) had criticized the arrests, noting that the park’s boundaries were extended in 1999 without the consultation of residents of the area.

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Dozens of residents of the Chenupau, Standford John told Kaieteur News, Toshao of Chenapau, village within the Kaieteur National Park

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