– as men with heavy-duty equipment invade village

ON Saturday morning, several men with heavy-duty equipment invaded the titled lands of the small village of Batavia, Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni) leaving the villagers on edge.
Batavia Toshao Oren Williams told the Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday morning that the village was preparing to host its annual indigenous heritage celebrations when he received information that a miner had moved onto the land located on the mapped landmass which the village occupies.

Williams, who travelled to the city to meet with government officials on the issue on Wednesday, noted 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.

He said on Saturday after he received information on what was taking place on the village lands, he immediately contacted the Deputy Toshao Murphy Gomez and according to him, his deputy made contact with the miner who lives at Bartica.

“He went to the man’s home but his son deals with his business and they agreed that they will sort out the situation the following week, since it was weekend,” he said. Williams said residents were surprised that less than an hour after the miner agreed to discuss the matter with the council, his workmen moved farther into the land and chopped pieces of pipes while destroying dredges which belong to villagers.

DETECTION OF GOLD
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 that he was told that several villagers worked on a parcel of land on the periphery of the village 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.

Several calls by this publication to a number provided for the miner proved futile, while the persons who answered a landline number provided for the miner said that the number did not belong to him.

A source at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) noted that the area appears to be in dispute, since the mining maps indicate that the miner has a claim within Batavia’s village lands.

NOT INTO POLITICS
Williams travelled to the city since Tuesday and met with an official of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs. “People telling me I’m fighting a losing battle, because this miner is well connected and is a “big one,” but I’m not into politics and I hope the matter is sorted [out],” he said.

He was directed to an official at the GGMC, but Williams and other Village Council members believe that the mining body is unhelpful. “We went there and they did not seem helpful, all the person did was direct us to someone at the mapping division,” the village captain noted. Contact was also made with persons at the Indigenous Peoples’ Commission on the issue.

During the National Toshaos Conference (NTC) this year, Batavia received its certificate of title, but the recent development has left the village undecided about the rights to its own lands.

The Village Council is calling on the authorities to investigate the situation, since they noted that the villagers do not wish to get into a physical confrontation with the miner’s employees, including a general manager at the site, whom they noted directed his men to bulldoze several trees, while dredges and pipes which belong to the villagers were dumped into a ravine.

There have been several instances of miners confronting village councils in the hinterland over who owns the rights to lands there. The villages of Isseneru in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni region and Micobie in the Potaro-Siparuni region as well as several others in the South Rupununi are among several which have been battling mining issues.