I wish refer to the ill-fated APA’s workshop’ which made malicious and misleading statements about Guyana’s LCDS consultations in the Amerindian communities:
Kindly allow me to make the following points:
(1) The Kaieteur News reported that the statement emanating from the APA’s workshop of Amerindians leaders was ‘hard hitting’ (KS 23.03, 2010) The statement was not hard hitting to those who know the truth. The fact is that the statement was punctuated with a number of flaws and more so deficient in the factual information.
(2) The only fault of the LCDS consultation was its consistency with internationally accepted principles and standard which drew the wrath of the APA, since they have absolutely nothing to complain about concerning the consultations, but only keep ‘digging up’ bogus information to desecrate the consultations on the orders of  their foreign paymasters. If they refuse such orders they will certainly not survive because the foreign funding will cease. No wonder the APA refused the invitation extended to it by the President of Guyana to serve on the Multi-stakeholder steering committee (MSSC).
(3) The Toshao of Arau Village in the upper Mazaruni said that “our top priority is to secure our traditional lands and territories”. This is a far reaching statement and I think the Toshao doesn’t even know what he is saying. I will deal with this statement in a subsequent statement. The Arau village was already granted legal title to its lands. If they need an extension then all they have to do is follow the procedures in the Amerindian Act 2006. But all that the Toshao does when he visits Georgetown is to sit in the office of the APA. The APA cannot help him in what he is pursuing. The same goes for the upper Mazaruni communities who took the government to court on the advice of the APA for additional  lands while at the same time having titles to their respective lands and saying that they will not participate in the LCDS because the government has failed to “settle their outstanding lands claims”. Like the Arau village, they are expecting the APA to solve their land issues instead of the Government of Guyana.
(4) The APA’s statement said that the LCDS consultations were backed by weak translation support. The APA has disgraced itself here because it does not recognise the abilities of the Amerindians who they claim to represent. The LCDS presentations at the sessions were translated into the Akawaio, Patamona and Wapishana languages by Amerindian because no one in the respective audiences complained about not understanding the translators. They all understood their languages.