THE Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) wishes to respond to certain statements appearing in the Guyana Chronicle of November 10, 2011, some attributed to President Bharrat Jagdeo. 
In one such statement, the President “implores” residents of Paramakatoi, Region 8, “to ignore rumours maliciously spread” regarding “a plot to confiscate lands from Amerindians” while “pointing a finger at the Amerindian People’s (sic) Association”.
First of all, the APA is in agreement with His Excellency in cautioning residents to ignore the malicious spreading of rumours. 
In this case however, since the APA cannot accept responsibility for the spreading of any rumour, the organisation wonders about the origin of the above-mentioned ‘rumour’ and whether or not it is an attempt by a person or persons to discredit the work of the organisation and to deflect attention from the real land problems plaguing many indigenous communities in Guyana and which are not being deal with.
The facts regarding the land problems being faced are many and the APA is on record, included in numerous documents sent to the government, as to what some of these problems are and what some possible remedies could be.
These problems have also been pointed out to the United Nations. In the very region visited by the president, the communities have reported overlapping boundaries based on the title descriptions given by the government, and demarcations that do not reflect the land that the communities know to be theirs.
The reality is that most indigenous communities know their boundaries without the actual physical demarcation being carried out and therefore if “development”  is to be taken to these communities there is no reason why non-demarcation should be a barrier.
Further, according to the Guyana Chronicle, the President stated, “We have been in office for more than 15 years now, and you ask a single community in Guyana if we have ever taken away land from them…the answer would be no”. 
We wish to recall the situation of the Campbelltown community in Region 8, where the majority of the community’s land is covered by mining concessions with only a small portion really being under the control of the community.
There was much pomp and ceremony when this title was handed over to the community.  Then there is Kurutuku in Region 7 where the community knew their land area to be of a certain description only to find that it was reduced when a new title was recently given to them.
When they raised the matter, they were told to re-apply for the very land that was excised. Yet another case is the one of Arau, Region 7 where the boundary of the southern end of the village was reduced and about 14 medium and large-scale mining blocks were granted within that very land. This was done without the knowledge of the Village Council who has since written a letter of complaint to President Jagdeo.
The truth is that some areas of ancestral lands are given out as mining and other concessions without due regard for farming or other traditional activities carried out on these lands by indigenous peoples.

According to the Chronicle article which quotes from the Amerindian Act, Amerindians have veto power to any request for mining.  Then could someone say how the Campbelltown and Arau situations happened? 

The very Act that it quoted states, “If a Village refuses its consent in respect of large-scale mining, a miner may carry out the mining activities if (a) the Minister with responsibility for mining and the Minister declare that the mining activities are in the public interest.” This is not veto power.

The APA has never told any indigenous community that “the Toshaos want to sell out their land” as stated by President Jagdeo. 
The APA is however aware that recently at the Toshaos Conference when some of the Toshaos wanted to raise problems regarding their land, they were either ignored or given little time to talk while those who had praises for the government were favoured.
The APA is wondering why the organisation is being targeted and maligned by the Peoples Progressive Party during its elections campaigning. The organisation is not a political party and should not be treated as such during this or any elections. 
However, we have encouraged our members to vote and to do so wisely as is their constitutional right. The APA is aware that this is not the first occasion during this election season that ‘rumours’ are being spread about the organisation and that indigenous communities are being misinformed about what the organisation stands for.  
The APA urges the present government and any future government to take time to really listen to the people, hear their concerns and deal with these concerns.