Chinese Landing residents call on Govt. to lift ban on local mining 

Mar 21, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – The Chinese Landing Village Council via a statement on Monday called on the government to lift the ban it has placed on all gold mining in Chinese Landing Barama River, North West District, Region One.

“…this ban is negatively affecting our livelihoods and has no apparent connection to the reason for the precautionary measures”, the village council said. Chinese Landing Residents are up in arms against the government for granting permits to outside miners to mine gold lands-the Tassawini gold fields- that they claim rightfully belong to them. They have been involved in lengthy legal battles involving the courts over the years, demanding the return of their titled lands.

More recently, a petition was filed on their behalf to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and that body had issued a resolution in August, 2023, calling on the Guyana Government to implement a series of measures to protect the Indigenous Carib Community of Chinese Landing.

The village council noted in its statement on Monday that following a “Fact Finding” mission by the government in response to the IACHR resolution, it banned all mining inside Chinese Landing’s titled lands. “We are unclear on what legal basis the Government has done this”, the village Council said.

The Village Council claimed that it has written the government several letters requesting an explanation on the legal basis for banning Chinese Landing residents from mining but has received no response to date. “…the ban on our villagers’ small mining is cutting off an important source of livelihood”, iterated the Chinese Landing Village Council.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo at a press-conference on August 31, 2023 had said that the Indigenous people of Chinese Landing had allegedly told the IACHR that mining is polluting their environment and that the miners are threatening and harassing them. He then added that his government has already solved this problem by shutting down all mining in the area. Jagdeo noted that it seems as if Chinese Landing residents want the government to stop everyone else from mining and allow them alone to mine but it his view that if the root cause of the problem is mining then no one should mine.

“It seems as though now what the Toshao (Orin Fernandes) is saying is allow only us to mine but shut down the others but that is not what they argued. Because mining wherever it is done could be causing the pollution so that is where we are now, we have cured the breach that went before the commission”, Jagdeo had said.

Months later, the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai at a press conference had iterated that the government stopped all mining activities in the Amerindian village because its people complained to the 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.”

Meanwhile, former APNU+AFC Member of Parliament (MP) and Advisor to the then Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs, Mervin Williams has called out the government for taking this stance. He believes that the current government’s move to stop all mining at Chinese Landing is a move to punish the indigenous people who occupy the area for speaking out. “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 a recent interview.

He said too 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.”

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

Engage in good faith

The Village Council on Monday also called on the government to engage with the Chinese Landing residents in “good faith to implement the recommendations of the IACHR in Precautionary Measures No. 196-23”.

According to the council it has noted media reports of the Government calling on the human rights body to withdraw the precautionary measures that are in favour of Chinese Landing. “We have not to date seen any indication that this request was granted” the Village Council, said while adding, “ In fact, we and the Government have recently received a letter from the Commission indicating that it will  continue to monitor the implementation of the precautionary measures”

The council continued that it has since asked the human rights body for its support in urging the government to implement the measures.

“Specifically, we have asked the Commission to support our requests to the  Government to: (1) remove all weapons from the mining concessions inside our titled lands; (2) ensure that there are independent police and mines officers stationed to address complaints of legal or rights  violations in the village; (3) revoke the concessions held by Mr. Vieira inside our titled lands – or at a  minimum, to let the Court of Appeal know that it agrees to our motion for an expedited hearing in our  case seeking to clarify the land rights at issue; and (4) to lift the ban on our villagers’ own small mining, as  this ban is negatively affecting our livelihoods and has no apparent connection to the reason for the precautionary measures”, the Village Council stated.

The Village Council said too that, “While it agrees that banning outside mining is connected to the reason the precautionary measures were granted, it has not actually caused the miners and their weapons to remove from the lands”. “They instead appear to remain, waiting for the ban to be lifted.  In just the past couple of weeks, it appears that shelving of a hill at Tassawini has re-started and excavation is about to start up again”, the Village Council claimed.

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• ban, Chinese Landing, gold, Mining, village council

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