–miner approaches Broomes for help
By Shauna Jemmott
THE Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) has launched an investigation into reports of an incident which has left Theodore Dick, a miner and young father, with severe burns.
Accompanied by his sister Andrea Dick, mother-in-law Saya Johnson and his child, the injured man visited Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, on Friday. After seeing the burns and hearing his story, Minister Broomes said an investigation will be launched into his complaints.
She also informed Minister of Indigenous Affairs, Sydney Allicock, of the incident.
Dick received severe burns in an accident on a mining work ground, and was placed by his employer in a boat sailing along the Cuyuni River, Essequibo, to be transported to a place called ‘Devil Hole’, located about halfway along the journey to Bartica. No money was given to him.
With burns being evident on his face, right arm and leg, the young man recounted that he had received the injuries during an accident, which occurred on Sunday while he and co-workers were preparing the dredge to work another pit after washdown.
It happened in Kurushi Backdam in the Cuyuni Mining district near the border with Venezuela.
Dick told the Guyana Chronicle that he and another worker were standing on the sluice box, using fire to join the ends of the pipe, when the other man poured a mixture of gasoline and diesel on the fire. There was an explosion and he was pitched off the box and landed some distance away, receiving severe burns about his body.
The General Manager (GM) of the operations, whom he knows only as “Shatta”, “took me out of the backdam on a bike and put me on a boat,” the young man said.
NO MONEY
He said the boat took him some miles away to ‘Devil Hole’ where guest house workers refused to allow him to stay until he produced money. He said while Shatta did not give him any money or gold, he had on his person two pennyweight which he secured as ‘blai’ (gold shaken out from the pipe after washdown which is parted between the workers, apart from their earned payment), and sold the gold to pay for a room for the night and to travel to Georgetown.
The man’s mother-in-law said her son-in-law telephoned her and told her what happened, and he was taken to the Georgetown Hospital, where his burns were treated.
She said her family is disappointed in the way he was treated by his employer, and visited the minister’s office to seek justice.
The woman pointed out that Dick was not accompanied by anyone, but was just put in a boat; and he was given no money or gold even though his employer owes him for work done over two months.
She said the family was informed by someone in the mining area that the dredge is owned by Najab Mohammed, a Robb Street, Georgetown businessman. When they visited Mohammed earlier this week, he said he no longer owns the dredge, but had given it to a man who was identified as “Bailer”. Mohammed said Bailer is in another mining location and communicates with him every three months.
“I really need (for) something to be done. This actually throws things back for his family; he can’t work,” Saya told the Guyana Chronicle outside the Minister’s office.
Minister Broomes also advised the family to report the matter to the Ministry of Labour. “Nobody could just bail out of a responsibility and say is not me dredge… We could know that from records here,” Minister Broomes said.
She assured the family that the GGMC will have records of who is the owner of the operation. “I’m going to promise you that whoever owns the dredge — be it Bailer, be it Najab or who — they will not only pay you your salary… nobody will take people in the interior, be it you’re African, you’re Amerindian or whoever you be…you’re not an Amerindian boy, you’re Guyanese, gone out there to work for your money… and so it’s not something that one would take for granted,” the minister said.
