GUYANA TAKES RETRORADE STEP ON UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

As Guyana and the rest of the world commemorate another International Day of Indigenous Peoples on August 9, 2007, the Guyanese Organization of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP) and the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) are calling on the Government of Guyana to vote for the approval of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Declaration) when it again comes before the UN General Assembly next month.

See full story at:
http://indigenouscaribbeancaucus.blogspot.com/2007/08/guyana-takes-retrorade-step-on-un.html

Barama forced to pull out of Akawini: Villagers demand compensation, or will take legal action

By Johann Earle

Guyana, South America -Barama Company Limited yesterday announced that it would begin to demobilise its equipment and close its St Monica/Akawini operation following a decision by the Akawini Village Council that the company and its sub-contractor must go.

The Village Council has, for the past several weeks, appealed for help saying that it was being taken advantage of and treated unfairly. The Amerindian Peoples' Association (APA) and the Guyanese Organisation of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP) had, on behalf of the people of Akawini, called on Barama and its sub-contractor Interior Woods Products Inc (IWPI) to cease all logging operations in the titled lands.

The council holds the view that Barama, which has a sub-contract to harvest on behalf of IWPI, is also complicit in the bad arrangement. Officials of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) and IWPI were noticeably absent from the meeting, held at the Akawini Primary School yesterday.

Several persons holding placards met the Barama team at Akawini protesting the contractual arrangement and calling for Barama and IWPI to go.

General Manager of Barama Girwar Lalaram said at a meeting at Akawini yesterday that since the Akawini Village Council was holding fast to its position without giving a hearing to the company, he was left with no choice but to bring all operations to a close.

The village also accused Barama and IWPI of logging hardwoods in addition to the peeler logs used to make plywood. But an official from the company said that it logged "mostly" peeler logs, acknowledging that some hardwoods were cut, but to a lesser degree.

Further, the Village Council read out a list of demands to Barama. These included compensation for every log taken and for monies owed to workers. Compensation for degradation to ecosystems supporting wildlife and for loss of traditional way of life was also requested.

The Village Council said that if these demands were not met then legal action would follow.
Before he announced the end of operations, Lalaram had said that Barama would never attempt to cheat residents or deny them what is supposed to be delivered to them. He said if the residents wished, Barama would deliver on the promises made by the IWPI. According to Lalaram, IWPI was supposed to complete some social activities in the areas of health, education and recreation. "What IWPI has failed to do, Barama commits itself to delivering," Lalaram said to the villagers. "If the captain tells me what was promised, I will deliver them within a short time," he added.

According to Lalaram, at a Village Council meeting last Friday, the villagers had decided that they wanted to work out an arrangement with Barama, leaving IWPI out of the deal.

Lalaram said he was told that 54 people from the village and surrounding areas were employed by Barama and he insisted that people work in camps other then the one in St Monica, near Akawini. "I am also willing to make the investment in those people in the two villages to train them to work for Barama," Lalaram said.

The APA and GOIP said in their joint release some days ago that workers were very poorly paid, some earning as little as $17,000 per month. [Guyana dollars]

In response, Lalaram said: "On wages and salaries, I expect that Barama will not pay any person below the national minimum wage." He said too that overtime would be given to anyone who worked outside regular hours, as well as lunch allowances. He said the company would comply with all labour regulations.

"I stand firm, we will have nothing to do with IWPI. If the people decide that they don't want IWPI, then IWPI is out. I am willing to remodel the agreement between the community and Barama to reflect certain social commitments. I will provide to the children of Akawini and St Monica two computers, whether Barama continues to operate or not."

Toshao of Akawini, David Wilson asked Lalaram how long he knew of the company IWPI. Lalaram responded that he was not involved in the initial arrangement with IWPI and the Akawini Village Council. But he said he had checked at the Deeds Registry and found that the company was registered with two named directors.

Wilson said the Akawini Village Council had never seen the subcontract "and we were never consulted before IWPI entered into this subcontract with Barama."

Akawini has a timber harvesting and sales agreement with IWPI, which expressly states that IWPI could only engage the services of a sub contractor after consulting the holder, namely the Akawini Village Council.

The Village General Meeting of Akawini took a decision on February 28, 2007 to terminate the IWPI agreement because of alleged breaches.

The council said it wrote to the IWPI in March informing the company of the decision to end the agreement; no response was received.

Lalaram said the door was still open for negotiations on possible arrangements, but he decried the confrontational stance by the Akawini Village Council. He said Barama would issue a full press statement on the Akawini issue.

Article source: Stabroek News

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See related stories:
http://uctp.blogspot.com/2007/05/amerindian-groups-call-on-barama-to.html

Amerindian groups call on Barama to cease Akawini logging

Guyana, South America - The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) and the Guyanese Organisation of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP) are calling on Barama Company Limited and Interior Woods Products Limited (IWPI) to immediately cease all logging operations in the titled lands of Akawini Amerindian Village in Pomeroon Region 2.

A release from the two groups said yesterday that Barama began logging in Akawini in February 2006 "ostensibly" on a subcontract it signed with the IWPI. According to Akawini Toshao, David Wilson, the Akawini Village Council has never seen this subcontract "and we were never consulted before IWP entered into this subcontract with Barama."

Barama was contacted by Stabroek News for a comment yesterday but up to press time there was no response.

Akawini has a timber harvesting and sales agreement with IWPI which expressly states that IWPI could only engage the services of a sub contractor after consulting the holder, namely the Akawini Village Council.

The press release said that the Village General Meeting (VGM) of Akawini which is the highest decision making forum for the village under the law took a decision on February 28, 2007 to terminate the IWPI agreement because of alleged breaches by the IWPI. The Village Council has since March of this year written to IWPI informing the company of the decision of the VGM to end the agreement. The council has to date received no response and the logging continues unabated. In the agreement between IWPI and Akawini, the release said, the postal address of IWPI is a home address and it has no stated telephone or fax number or email address.

"In reality, IWPI is a faceless company which strongly suggests that it is a shell or front company of Barama," the release said.

In early May, the APA represented by David James, attorney-at-law and Toshao David Wilson were invited by Swiss NGOs Bruno Manser Fonds and Society for Threatened Peoples to meet with officials of Credit Suisse and Samling Global Group of Malaysia.

The release said that at the meeting in Zurich, James and Wilson informed the officials of Credit Suisse and Samling that Barama through its purported subcontract with IWPI, is unsustainably logging the last remaining forest of the Akawini Village and in the process threatens the livelihood and violates the rights of indigenous people living there.

At the Zurich meeting, according to the release, Cheryl Yong, Communications Manager of Samling said that 55 persons from Akawini were employed with Barama. Toshao Wilson categorically refuted this and said that there are fewer than 12 persons employed by Barama who work for $17,000 a month. He also told the meeting that Barama/IWPI harvest over 20 different species of hardwood in Akawini and that Yong stated Barama only cuts peeler logs which have no commercial value to locals.

According to the release, Barama's April 2007 production report in Akawini shows that 92 pieces of Purple Heart, 31 pieces of Mora, 60 pieces of Locust, 44 pieces of Kabucalli and 92 pieces of Bulletwood amounting to 1,587 cubic metres of hardwood were harvested.

The APA and GOIP are calling on the Government of Guyana to protect the rights of the indigenous peoples of Guyana and in particular the people of Akawini.

Source:

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_general_news?id=56520903

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Alternative Viewpoint:

"These groups are wrong to call on Barama to cease operations in Akawini village lands"

See http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56521171

Land titles fight continues

The first Amerindian lawyer of Guyana David James (left),
along with his associate, Martin Cheong, programme assistant,
legal services unit, APA recently took a tour of Dominica,
St Vincent and Barbados.

by Tracy Moore

GUYANA'S FIRST Amerindian lawyer, David James, is making his mark in his homeland and the Caribbean.

He recently became the legal advisor to the Amerindian Peoples Association of Guyana (APA), a non-governmental organisation, with objectives to promote the social, economic, political and cultural improvement of the Indigenous communities and to promote and defend their civil rights.

In other words, he has his work cut out for him.

James, along with his associate, Martin Cheong, programme assistant, Legal Services Unit, APA recently took a tour to Dominica, St. Vincent and Barbados lecturing about the plight of the Amerindians in Guyana.

"One of the purposes is to create awareness and we are also looking for solidarity from other indigenous people and non-indigenous people. I think there is still a thinking that indigenous people either not exists or that there are so few in numbers that nobody pays much attention to them.

"In Guyana, we number some ten per cent of the population which approximates to about 70 000," said the attorney-at-law.

He said that there were two main areas that the indigenous people and their organisation were concerned about.

"One has to be with the protection of our rights to lands, territories and resources which we have traditionally owned, occupied and used going back all the way to our ancestors.

"We are concerned that the present law – the new law – does not adequately equip us. For indigenous people, the land is the source for everything for us. It is the source for which our culture flows, our way of life depends on that and if we do not have legal security to that land in the form of title, then it means that we will face an uncertain future.

"At the moment, the law does not state that right and therefore it does not protect that right as far as I am concerned.

"All it does is say that power is in the hands of the relevant minister to determine whether indigenous communities are able to obtain title to their land or not, or extensions to titles," he explained.

Cheong added that the issues were deep-rooted from the days of Guyana's independence in 1966, when one of the conditions of independence were to resolve land rights issues pertaining to the Amerindian peoples.

"The next year, the government commissioned an Amerindian Lands Commission which went out to over 100 communities to listen to the concerns of the people. In 1969, a report was published," he cited.

He said the commission recommended that "some 24 000 square miles of Guyana should be titled as indigenous title land, but that the government did nothing until 1976."

"Seventy communities obtained titles, but that only amounted to 4 500 (square miles). During their visit of the commission, the indigenous leaders themselves and communities had said that some 43 000 square miles was their land – just a little over half of the country."The commission disagreed and said 24 000. Finally, what did we get? 4 500," he recalled.

"The struggle is with the law" said James, who added that it was based on a "philosophy of paternalism".

He explained that the law was steeped in "colonial ideology" which assumed "indigenous people basically couldn't think for themselves and therefore had to rely on the state to protect their interest".

"So under the law, we were seen as wards of the state. Basically, like children, and therefore the state had a lot of power over us in determining what was best for us," he said.

James and Cheong both acknowledged there had been a few improvements to the law recently, but not enough to meet their full approval.

"So although we have a new law now, we are not happy with some of the provisions. In 1991, the government issued a few more titles and then in 2004 at least two other titles were granted. Today, it stands at about 10 000 square miles" said Cheong.

With a total land mass of 83 000 square miles, a diverse population of three-quarters-of-a-million people – which the single largest population in the hinterlands are indigenous people – James and Cheong recognise that they have a battle ahead of them, but insist they will continue their struggle for their people.

Rodrigues defends Amerindian Bill against salvoes from groups

By Faizool Deo

AMERINDIAN Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues is refuting the claim by three Amerindian groups that the 2005 Amerindian Bill does not meet the needs of Amerindians in the country.

On the contrary, the minister feels the bill has come a far way from the Amerindian Act of 1951, and once implemented, will give Amerindians much more than they ever had.

At a press conference Tuesday at the Side Walk Café on Middle Street, Georgetown, members of the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA), The Amerindian Action Movement of Guyana (TAAMOG) and the Guyanese Organisation of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP) voiced their concerns about the Bill, which they dubbed ‘unacceptable’.

They charged that discrimination against the indigenous peoples remains entrenched and manifested in the bill, and their rights to lands, resources and to self determination are neither adequately recognised nor protected.

At a post-Cabinet press conference yesterday, Ms Rodrigues indicated that the bill is not a product of the government, but rather comprises recommendations of the Amerindian people, who were an integral part in the consultation period prior to the formulation of the legislation.

“Forty-six of the 76 recommendations which were made at the consultations we took into consideration,” she said. “One of the recommendations that we took is that the communities could lease land; before they could not. We were advised by the international consultant not to do that, but we did it still.”

The minister said that unlike other countries, Guyana is making it very easy for Amerindian people to acquire land, and the bill stipulates that Amerindians can make claims for lands after occupying them for 25 years.

The groups of Amerindians looking for changes to the bill argue that it gives the minister too much power.

They are quoted as saying in their documentation presented to the media on Tuesday that, in the bill, the minister is vested with “arbitrary and draconian powers” that are incompatible with indigenous peoples’ self determining status and the exercise and enjoyment of other rights and fundamental freedoms.

But Rodrigues said her ministry will only be called in to address situations that could not be dealt with at other levels.

“Every day in the ministry captains come to us with problems which they can resolve by themselves, and we will say to them you can do that by yourselves you do not need us. But there are cases when the council would come to us to make a decision, but this is always a last resort.”

Another issue she put to rest is that of the presumed procrastination on her ministry’s part in implementing the Indigenous Peoples Commission, which is to represent the Amerindian people.

She said her ministry would be happy for the commission to be put in place, but several factors are preventing this from happening.

But there is another grouse that worries the three Amerindian groups.

“What Guyana has done is to include in our national laws some international laws, so we have at least seven international covenants which have been included in our national laws. The Amerindian Act should be compatible with the laws. We are saying at present that it is not. So if it’s passed as it now reads, then we can challenge it in court, because it will be in contravention of the Constitution,” APA representative David James contended.

Rodrigues remarked that even if all the demands of the Amerindian groups opposing the bill are met, she still feels that they will go to court.

But she assured the indigenous people that the bill, once implemented, will enhance the well-being of the nation’s Amerindian population.