…Gov’t to address issues surrounding miners
-villagers call for revocation of Wayne Vieira’s miner’s licence

A MINING crisis, which was created when the PPP Government granted permission to a miner to operate on the titled village lands at the North West District community of Chinese Landing/Tassawini without the community’s consent, has ignited once again and government is working feverishly to address the issue before it further escalates.

The issue came to the fore once more last week when officials of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), who were accompanied by armed police ranks, entered the community and destroyed the villagers’ equipment on four mining blocks. The GGMC officials told the villagers that they were working illegally. The issue dates back to 1995 when miner, Wayne Vieira, was granted prospecting and later in 1998, mining permits, to mine on the village lands of the Carib community, by the authorities.

The village wants the GGMC and the government to revoke the permit of the miner, citing its devastating impact on their village economy. Ministerial Adviser at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Mervyn Williams, told the Guyana Chronicle on Thursday that ministry is aware of the issue. He told the Guyana Chronicle that he met with members of the village council last Friday, at the ministry, to discuss the issue. He said that the villagers aired their concerns and after listening to them, he dispatched two correspondences, one addressed to the Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, and another to Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock, with the aim of having the matter addressed.

Williams said he found it strange that the village council chose to vent its concerns with the media on Thursday, even though the matter is being addressed at the level of the relevant ministries. On Thursday, village leader of Chinese Landing/Tassawini, Orin Fernandes, told reporters at a press briefing, at the Regency Suites, that the issue is affecting the economic livelihoods of the residents of the remote village, as well as persons within the Moruca sub-district who benefitted from the spin-offs associated with the mining activities at Chinese Landing.

Fernandes recounted that last week, several GGMC officials accompanied by police ranks, visited the village without prior notice and proceeded to dismantle the equipment and other structures on the village land where villagers were operating. He said the officials informed that they were acting on the instructions of the GGMC and a court ruling made by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) which ruled in Vieira’s favour in December 2017.

In December 2017, the CCJ overturned a ruling of the Guyana Court of Appeal and ruled that the GGMC had no authority to order Wayne Vieira, in November 2010, to cease all work at his Chinese Landing operation in spite of having a mining permit to do so.

According to the ruling, the CCJ’s decision rests on the fact that Vieira had no agreement with the Chinese Landing-Tassawini Village Council at the time the Cease Work Order (CWO) was issued by the GGMC. As such, what the CCJ’s ruling did, was effectively restore the High Court’s decision and awarded Vieira costs to this effect.

NO RIGHTS
On Thursday, the village leader noted that the ruling of the CCJ did not give Vieira the authority to continue mining within the village lands. He said neither did that ruling order the GGMC to destroy the residents’ equipment and evict them from their legally-recognised lands. It was pointed out too, that at no time, was the village council a party to the CCJ’s deliberations and as such, the village is reiterating that the ruling does not give rights to the miner to operate within their titled lands. While giving a background into the history of the issue, it was noted by the village that in 1976, Chinese Landing received its land title from the government and in 1991, the village received an absolute grant over its lands.

SAM HINDS’ DECISION
Vieira entered the fray in 1995 when the mining, which fell under the purview of former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, granted permission to the miner to prospect and later mine at the village without the village’s consent.” GGMC converted those prospecting permits to mining permits, again without any notice to the community and violating the Free, Prior and Informed Consent mechanism.

The village council said that since 1998, it has been trying to solve the problem and even came to an agreement with Vieira, but it was noted that the miner managed to manipulate and coerce the village council to his benefit. In 2004 , the village council decided to cut ties with the miner and since then it has been nightmarish gaining the attention of the then PPP-Administration to address their concerns.

In 2010 the GGMC issued the cease work order to the miner on the grounds that he was violating the Amerindian Act by mining on the village lands without permission. In 2018, the village raised the issue at the National Toshaos Conference with Minister Trotman, who noted that a miner cannot mine at a community without its consent. Williams told the Guyana Chronicle that the issue could have been better handled by the previous government, whom he noted left the village in the cold, including through the judicial process when the matter was before the courts. He reiterated that the matter will be addressed by the coalition administration.

Meanwhile, in response to suggestions that Chinese Landing has not been benefitting from government’s interventions, Williams noted that the village has been receiving funding for various projects under the Presidential grants. Last year, under a capital project, the village received a sum of $1M for a school hot meal project. Funds over the past three years were also directed towards other aspects of education delivery in the village.