– as villagers confront alleged illegal miner

TEMPERS flared on Saturday morning in the back lands of Batavia, Cuyuni-Mazaruni, as residents of the village journeyed to the area and stopped a miner from operating there.
The villagers said workers employed by the miner, who hail from Bartica, are defying a letter sent to him by the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs to stop operations until a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the matter.

Toshao Oren Williams told the Guyana Chronicle that the villagers travelled to the area on Saturday morning after receiving word that the workers of the miner were still bulldozing the lands despite the orders.

He said the miner informed the police at Bartica that the villagers confronted his workmen with guns and cutlasses but Williams disputed this.

The letter, which was seen by this publication, was addressed to a “Mr Ramnarine” and was signed by the Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock. It stated that the village leader and councillors visited the ministry last Tuesday, September 18 to raise concerns about the man’s operations on Batavia’s titled lands.

A meeting was called on Thursday in the City between the Village Council, officials of the ministry, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) as well as the miner. The meeting went ahead without the miner who informed GGMC officials that he could not make it because of emergency reasons.

A meeting was then scheduled for Tuesday, September 25, 2018, with all parties and the ministry invited the miner. “You are kindly asked to cease your mining activities in the area until the meeting is convened and a way forward is decided on,” the letter stated.
However, residents said the miner paid no attention to the letter and his workers continued to clear the lands.

Williams said the villagers are angry at the situation and he expressed hope that the confrontation would not become physical in the backdam.

The village leader, who only assumed his current role a few months ago following Village Council elections, told the Guyana Chronicle last week that the village received its land title in 2014. The following year, its boundaries were demarcated. “What we have is a map of the village but we didn’t know that there are two blocks within our land which the man is claiming belongs to him,” Williams said.

The village leader explained that the residents never explored mining and only this year residents were able to determine that there were signs of gold on the village lands. He said he was told that several villagers worked on a parcel of land on the periphery of the village’s boundary close to the area in question.

Williams said he was told that, that parcel of land which lies outside the village boundary belongs to the miner. He said the villagers then crossed back into their own territory and found signs of gold three months ago.

Reports are that the Bartica-based miner received word of the gold find and moved onto the land.