Stopping all mining at Chinese Landing is Govt.’s way of punishing the Indigenous people for speaking out - Former Opposition MP

Stopping all mining at Chinese Landing is Govt.’s way of punishing the Indigenous people for speaking out – Former Opposition MP

Jan 14, 2024 News

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News – Former APNU+AFC Member of Parliament(MP) and Advisor to the then Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs, Mervin Williams believes that the current government’s move to stop all mining at Chinese Landing, Barama River, Region One is a move to punish the indigenous people who occupy the area for speaking out.

Former Opposition MP, Mervin Williams

“That is vindictive. That is deliberate in its vindictiveness it’s the kind of action that seeks to punish the entire village of Chinese landing… ”, Williams told Kaieteur News in response to recent claims made by the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai at a press conference held last Tuesday.

Sukhai said that the Government stopped all mining activities in the Amerindian village because its people complained to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

According to Sukhai, the Chinese Landing Residents were the ones who asked the human rights body for mining to stop because it was affecting them and all the government did was comply.

“…the government has addressed all the conditions that the IACHR has listed including the call [for mining to stop] by the Village Council who has allegedly took this matter to the IACHR for redress. The government adhered in the call to stop all mining,” Sukhai said after a reporter asked her for an update on the “Chinese Landing Fiasco.”

However, Williams said that Sukhai’s claim is totally false. “The petition to IACHR contrary to what Pauline Sukhai is suggesting never asked for the cessation of mining totally in Chinese Landing,” he told Kaieteur News while pointing to a section of the petition to the IACHR which states that, “…it says that the village is asking for the suspension… I am quoting here… the suspension of all mining activities in Tassawini until the land rights of Chinese Landing Village are finally determined and until a participatory environmental and social Impact Assessment described above is completed.”

Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai

Williams explained that requests were made for mining to cease in Tassawini alone and across the entire village. Further, he noted that when the government stopped all mining- the main source of income of the indigenous people- did not outline a plan for alternative means of income for the residents of Chinese Landing.

Sukhai indirectly pointed fingers at the Amerindian Peoples’ Association (APA), the organisation that represented the villagers in their petition to the IACHR.

“I have been warning advocates of Amerindians don’t ever make complaints to stop mining in Amerindian areas because Amerindians also thrive on mining, unless you have an alternative to offer them as an economic significant venture,” Sukhai said while hinting that the Village Council has the power in its hands to have the ban on mining lifted.

“…So the Village Council can change that if they need,” the Minister told reporters but did not say if Tassawini will be returned to the people of Chinese Landing.

A shot of the mining grounds in dispute.

Sukhai reminded that though the Village Council can approve mining, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) is the only legal authority that can grant the mining licenses.

GGMC had granted the mining licenses for Tassawini to an individual identified as Mr. M.V and the indigenous people objected and this resulted in the village and government being at loggerheads for a number of years now over who has the rights to mining lands.

The Chinese Landing residents in previous interviews iterated that Tassawini is critical to their livelihood and that Mr. M.V has prevented them from working and hunting on their title lands by force.

They alleged that they received death threats and were assaulted. There were also claims of sexual assault and harassment.

Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo at a past press conference explained that a recent court ruling on the same land issue had established that although the indigenous people own the lands, they do not own the minerals found within them.

Chinese Landing, Government, Mervin Williams, Mining, Pauline Sukhai, Shervin Belgrave

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