Consultations were held and agreements reached with every Amerindian community which received an Absolute Land Grant

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56528784

Consultations were held and agreements reached with every Amerindian
community which received an Absolute Land Grant
Stabroek News, Friday, September 14th 2007

Dear Editor,

I hasten to refer to an article carried in the Stabroek News of
September 12, 2007, captioned 'AFC calls for improvements in hinterland
areas.' Referring to comments made by Martin Cheong of the Alliance for
Change (AFC) the article stated as follows: "Meanwhile, the party
labelled as 'distasteful' the unilateral powers which it said the
Amerindian Affairs minister has used to grant land to communities by
'her own whims and fancies.' 'The communities of Micobie and Isseneru
can attest to this…'" Not only is this statement by the AFC totally
false, but it also accuses the Minister of being a dictator, which is
far from the truth.

Unlike what obtained in the past, consultations have been held and
agreements have been reached with every single community that has
received Absolute Land Grants from the PPP/C Government. In the last
four years the government has more than doubled the amount of land
owned by Amerindians, bringing the total to approximately 14% of
Guyana's territory. In addition a procedure to deal with land claims
has been included in the Amerindian Act of 2006. This is the truth. In
the case of Micobie, the community submitted a request to the Minister
which was reasonable. They subsequently received an Absolute Grant for
the same amount of land they requested. In the case of Isseneru, almost
two (2) years ago they requested an area measuring approximately 1000
square miles of land. The national patrimony is 83,000 square miles and
there are more than 125 Amerindian communities, in addition to the many
other non-Amerindian communities. As such, it is impossible to grant a
community of less than 350 persons an area of 1000 square miles of
land. This position was explained to the Toshao and the villagers. When
a new council came to office, the original request was reviewed and
they adjusted the area requested to approximately 160 square miles
(nearly the size of Barbados). This request was accepted by the
ministry, hence the issuance of the Absolute Grant for 160 square miles
on September 5, 2007.

I wish to re-emphasize that all of the communal lands granted to
Amerindian communities by this Government were only granted after there
were consultations and Agreements with the villages and not by the
"whims and fancies" of the Minister. Unilateralism is therefore out of
the question. The AFC should therefore get its facts straight before
making wild statements.

Yours faithfully,

Carolyn Rodrigues

Minister of Amerindian Affairs