…residents complain about TIP, drug use

REGION Nine residents are alleging breach of the agreement signed among involved parties on April 24 to settle the mining dispute in the Marudi mountain area.They raised those concerns over the weekend with Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, when she visited the area as part of a ministerial team led by Minister of Social Cohesion, Amna Ally, in an outreach to the South Rupununi.

Minister Broomes told the Government Information Agency (GINA) that the Marudi situation was a pressing matter when she met with 200 residents of Region Nine, who informed her that the situation had worsened since the agreement had been signed to resolve the issues with Romanex Guyana Exploration Ltd.

Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman had, last April, initiated a mediation process involving the Amerindian villages of Aishalton, Awariwaunau, Karaudanawa, Achiwuib, Shulinab, Maruranau, Shea and Potarinau, and miners and Romanex Guyana Exploration Ltd. Following the mediation, an agreement outlining solutions to the dispute had been signed among the overseas mining company, toshaos of the Amerindian villages, the Rupununi Miners Association, and the Guyana Women Miners Organisation.

Broomes told GINA the residents are alleging that signatories to the agreement were breaching the agreement. “The Amerindians are complaining that they are not benefiting anything from Marudi (mining operations),” Broomes said.

Residents have also indicated that, aside from the agreement being breached, illicit activities such as trafficking in persons and selling of prohibited drugs are taking place in the community.

“They have a lot of Brazilians in particular working the area, and (residents) are alleging that the Brazilians are taking the gold over the border,” Broomes revealed, as she disclosed that residents told her they felt they were “being used to sign the agreement, and they are being bullied at the end of it.”

Minister Broomes has said she would take the matter up with senior Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman. “I’m going to convey to him; so definitely we are going to have to make some kind of decision, because the activity has worsened based on (reports from) the people on the ground,” she said.

[GINA]