From: Native Americas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Guyana's Native People File Historic Law Suit
The following is an article from the Winter 1998 issue of Native Americas, published by the Akwe:kon Press at Cornell University. For more information on how to stay informed of emerging trends that impact Native peoples throughout the hemisphere visit our website at http://nativeamericas.aip.cornell.edu.
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Guyana's Native People File Historic Law Suit Over Lands
By Forest Peoples' Programme
Acting on behalf of their communities, six Akawaio and P�mon indigenous
community leaders from the Upper Mazaruni region of Guyana filed the
first ever land rights law suit in the High Court of Guyana on October
28, 1998.� By Forest Peoples' Programme
The leaders, known as Captains in Guyana, are seeking a judicial declaration that: 1) indigenous peoples in Guyana are entitled to full and equal protection of the provisions of the Guyana Constitution; 2) large parts of the 1976 Amerindian Act be ruled unconstitutional for violating constitutional prohibitions of racial discrimination; 3) the Akawaio and P�mon communities of the Upper Mazaruni have an unextinguished aboriginal title to the area formerly known as the 1959 Upper Mazaruni Amerindian District and 4) freehold title to the area be vested in the Captains on behalf of their communities.
The Captains gave two main written reasons for taking legal action: frustration with the lack of constructive action by the government and, the impact of mining activities, both small-scale and multinational.�
The Upper Mazaruni communities have been seeking title to the 1959 District and beyond since the Amerindian Lands Commission visited the area in 1967 to survey Amerindian lands and make recommendations concerning titles.� This commission was established to implement a legal condition of Guyana's Independence from the United Kingdom in 1966, that Amerindians would receive title to the lands they occupy.
�
In its 1969 Report, the Lands Commission recommended that the six communities receive title to approximately 1,500 square miles and that they submit a joint claim for approximately 4,000 to 4,500 square miles. It was not until 1991, however, that the Upper Mazaruni communities received title to the lands recommended by the Lands Commission, 15 years after other com- munities received their titles.
The reason for the delay was that the government had planned to construct a hydroelectric project in the region that would have flooded the majority of the land and forced the communities to relocate.� This project was abandoned in the early 1980s due to intense community and international opposition.
Since the 1930s, there has been mining in the Upper Mazaruni. A large diamond find had then resulted in an influx of coastal, small-scale miners.� In 1959, the government of then British Guiana, de-reserved one-third of the 4,500-square-mile 1945 Mazaruni Amerindian Reservation and opened it for mining. In 1977, the entire Mazaruni River and its tributaries were opened for mining, including the areas within the 1959 Upper Mazaruni Amerindian District.� A year later the enitre area was declared a mining district and thousands of small-scale miners arrived.
After titles were issued to the communities in 1991, mining continued unabated due to the state's claims to own all subsurface minerals and the exclusion of all rivers and river banks up to 66 feet inland.�
In 1994, the Canadian mining company, Golden Star Resources, received two large reconnaissance permits, the Upper Mazaruni and Wenamu, covering 474,200 hectares (1 hectare=2.471 acres) and 517,900 hectares, respectively, which covers almost all of the communities of the Upper Mazaruni.� These concessions were granted without even notifying the communities, who only became aware of them when they noticed Golden Star (GSR) planes conducting aerial surveys.
GSR's activities included cutting trenches through villagers agricultural plot, destroying them. When village leaders complained about GSR's presence to the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, he not only refused to intervene on their behalf, but tried to persuade them that they should acquiese to Golden Star's presence on their lands.� Others, including the Canadian company, Vannessa Ventures Ltd., followed Golden Star's lead.
The impact of mining on the communities, some of whom are also engaged in small-scale mining, has been devastating.
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