Chinese Landing residents doing the work the state should be doing

Dear Editor,

I write with immense pride in the residents of Chinese Landing, who have once again stood their ground against the intrusion of mining equipment onto their titled lands. Their determination (blocking roads, felling trees, and maintaining a 24-hour watch), is a powerful testament to what ordinary people can do when the institutions and the State, that was meant to protect them, remain silent.

That silence compels a simple question: Why can’t Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat travel to Chinese Landing, alongside the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, to assess the situation on the ground and work out a solution?

The Government has said its hands are tied because of a 2017 CCJ decision. With respect, that is a mischaracterisation of the facts. Any law student who reads the CCJ’s 2017 decision will advise that what the court said, in essence, is that a GGMC Mining Officer cannot use his powers under the Mining Act to issue a Cease Work Order for a breach of the Amerindian Act. The court found that the GGMC has full powers under the Mining Act itself. Critically, the CCJ did not validate Mr. Vieira’s mining permit, nor did it invalidate the land rights of the people of Chinese Landing. In summary, it said the GGMC cannot administer the Amerindian Act.

So the PPP Government’s hands are not tied. They are playing politics with this matter. The PPP is showing its true anti-Amerindian colours and exposing what they think of the Amerindian people as peons of their business friends.

The people of Chinese Landing received their first legal land title in 1976 under the Amerindian Act of 1951 (amended in 1976), during the tenure of then-Prime Minister Forbes Burnham and from the PNC Government.^[1] The community’s title was reaffirmed in 2018 when the village received a formal Certificate of Title under the Land Registry Act, covering approximately 19,241 acres (30.06 square miles).^[2]

The villagers are descendants of the Carib Indigenous people. For decades after receiving the 1976 title, they mined the area using basic tools (pork-knocker style), supplementing their income with hunting and farming.

In 1995, businessman Wayne Vieira acquired prospecting permits for the Tassawini area through a state auction, later converted into mining permits by the GGMC. The critical issue is that these permits were issued for lands already titled to Chinese Landing under the Amerindian Act. Plus the GGMC issued these permits without the consent of the Village Council, a decision residents and legal analysts view as a violation of their rights. How can any government give away titled lands?

In 2010, when the GGMC realised its error, it bungled the corrective measure by issuing a Cease Work Order against Vieira for violating the Amerindian Act and not the Mining Act, only to have that order quashed because the wrong legal mechanism was used. The GGMC messed up big time on this matter.

In its 2017 ruling, the CCJ decided that the GGMC’s mines officer did not have authority under the Amerindian Act to issue a cease-work order based on a breach of the Amerindian Act. But the CCJ never restricted the GGMC from enforcing its own authority under the Mining Act. The Mining Act, Chapter 65:01, explicitly includes a section titled “Cancellation of prospecting permit, mining permit or claim licence” (Section 65). This confirms that the legal mechanism exists under a simple clause; failure to meet all the conditions of the mining permit.

One of the preconditions for the issuance of a mining permit is that the miner, if operating on titled Amerindian lands, must obtain the consent of the villagers in writing. Mr. Vieira does not meet all the conditions for the renewal or continuation of his mining permit. Thus his mining permit should be cancelled by the GGMC under the Mining Act.

It is time for Minister Bharrat to study the law and act. The ministers should be on the ground to understand the political implication if this matter is not concluded soon since all of the Amerindians of Guyana are watching and listening and asking the question; which village is next?

Under the Mining Act, why hasn’t the GGMC terminated Wayne Vieira’s permits?

The legal architecture is clear. Section 80(1)(a)(v) of the Mining Act requires written consent from the Minister to mine within a village. Section 85 requires a valid agreement between the miner and the titled village. As legal analyses have pointed out, Vieira has neither. His permits should never have been issued, and the GGMC has the power—indeed the obligation—to cancel permits where the holder is in default, which Vieira has been for years on environmental and operational grounds.

The Amerindian Affairs Minister herself stated in 2023 that “government has no authority to provide permission to any outsider” on Indigenous lands, and that “issuing a license is not an approval to mine.”^[3] Those are her words. Why is her ministry now silent?

The residents of Chinese Landing have been forced to become the last line of defence for their own legally titled land. They are doing the work the state should be doing. Minister Bharrat, the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, and the leadership of the National Toshaos Council should go to the village, see the standoff firsthand, and solve this problem.

The solution is simple: terminate the mining permit issued to Vieira under the Mining Act and let the villagers lead the process of how they want their titled lands to be utilised. The Government should stop playing politics with this matter, and the National Toshaos Council should get busy and help their fellow brothers and sisters.

I salute the Carib people of Guyana and the residents of Chinese Landing. Stand your ground.

References

1. Land rights of the Amerindian community at Chinese Landing - Kaieteur News — kaieteurnewsonline.com ↩
2. Chinese Landing Village Council continues to press gov’t to ... — www.stabroeknews.com ↩
3. Minister Sukhai dodges critical questions at Presser - Kaieteur News — kaieteurnewsonline.com ↩