…who failed to comply with Amerindian Act

By Naomi Marshall

GOLD mining remains an issue for the community of Batavia in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni district and residents are calling on the government to intervene, as a Bartica-based miner fails to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to settle the land dispute.
The unresolved dispute has left the community of 500 residents in a “stagnant” state, as noted by a resident, Racjol Jeffery, since villagers can no longer take part in the community’s main income-earner– gold mining. This was said at an outreach held by the Ministry of Social Cohesion, Culture Youth and Sport recently in the community of Batavia.
“We are facing some challenges in Batavia. Our mining is down, we do not have access or the rights to do mining, to where we feel that as indigenous people, we have been taken advantage of by these rich merchants, these rich miners. We are really suffering in this community, there is no employment in the village, so I would like to ask the present government to help us,” Jeffery pleaded.

Jeffery explained that due to the land dispute, the residents cannot engage in forestry activities and is puzzled as to how they, the residents, can even persist “as Amerindians.”
He added, “We are living in the area where there is a lot of forest products, we do not have the access to forest products at this moment. The forestry sector has clampdown on us, so forestry is also dead. Right now we are inactive, and how then as Amerindians we should survive? I feel that we really need help along the life journey.”
In an interview with Guyana Chronicle, Toshao of Batavia, Orin Williams, stated that the Village Council would have engaged in three meetings with the miner, Rickey Ramnarine.
In September 2018, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs sent out a statement indicating that Minister within the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Valerie Garrido-Lowe, met with representatives of the Batavia Village Council and GGMC to address the issue.

The ministry said villagers had collectively decided that mechanisms must be put in place to ensure operations are carried out in accordance with the villagers’ stipulations and the Amerindian Act of 2006.

The ministry said that at a village meeting held on September 21, 2018, villagers agreed that for the mining operations to continue, Ramnarine must comply with several conditions set out.

At the last meeting which was held in May 2019, the Village Council was instructed by Ramnarine to articulate and send a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to him.
However, up until Monday, July 29, 2019, the council had not received a response from the miner.

“We have set up a MoU with Mr. Ramnarine and we give it to him, it’s a draft, it’s about over a month ago and he told us that his lawyer has to check it out and he will give us a feedback. Since then, we didn’t get no feedback from him as yet so presently there is no mining going on, it’s still on dispute, we didn’t come up with no agreement as yet, so the village is on a hold, waiting until he decides to respond to what we agreed to here in the village.”

According to Williams, the MoU is two pages long and includes the following: the miner must train two of the youths from Batavia in the fields of mechanic, machine operation or welding; the miner must employ two youths from the community; royalties must be paid to the village council, only one excavator is allowed to work on the land when clearing land, all marketable logs must be put on a ramp identified by the village council, among giving priority to villagers of demarcated mining blocks, since it is important for them to know the mining borders of his two claims amongst others.

“They also noted that mining must be done in accordance with the agreement between miner and village; royalties must be paid, the village will determine the number of excavators allowed; in cases of emergencies, Mr. Ramnarine must be able to provide assistance to [the] village,” the statement said.

Determined to survive, Williams indicated that the community has turned to agriculture and fishing for a living. He noted that some villagers even “had to go and seek employment further up the river and out of the village. It affecting us, so the village is still waiting on the response from Mr. Ramnarine.”

The village leader explained that the residents never explored mining and it was only in 2018, residents were able to determine that there were signs of gold on the village lands. He said that he was then told that several villagers worked on a parcel of land on the periphery of the village boundary, close to the area in question, where the 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 in June 2018.

Reports are that the Bartica-based miner received word of the gold find and moved onto the land.Since then, there has been several disagreements with the residents of Batavia and the miner, and the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs intervened.

Residents also called for the general manager, who they first encountered on the lands when the issue came to light in September 2018, to be immediately replaced “because of disrespectful behaviour towards residents.”

According to the document, penalties will be instituted should Ramnarine fail to meet the conditions set out.