Armed attack on miners at Kariako sparks rival calls from GGDMA and APA
The GGDMA accused Chinese Landing's Toshao of leading an armed assault on legal miners near Kariako village. The APA countered with solidarity for Indigenous residents.
Miners and Indigenous community trade accusations after violent clashes in Region One
The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) on Friday accused Chinese Landing Toshao Nikita Miller and others of attacking legitimate miners at Kariako village, stealing an excavator and an ATV, and wounding at least one worker with a cutlass. The Amerindian People's Association (APA) responded the same day, pledging "unwavering solidarity" with Chinese Landing residents and condemning the miners for what it called a brutal assault on the Toshao and community members.
Demerarawaves.com reported that both organisations issued separate statements following Thursday's violence, which has reignited longstanding tensions over land rights and mining permissions in the area.
What the GGDMA says happened
According to the miners' association, a Kariako miner working for operator Wayne Vieira sustained a severe chop wound during the confrontation and was airlifted to Georgetown aboard an Air Services Limited helicopter for treatment. The GGDMA also released photographs and video of the injured man's wounds.
The association alleged that Miller, who was armed with a licensed firearm, approached the excavator operator and demanded he turn the machine around and return to the Barama River. Her brother, the GGDMA said, struck the excavator repeatedly with a cutlass. Fearing for his safety, the operator complied.
The GGDMA further alleged that Miller and others subsequently pointed the firearm at the operator, threatened to chop him, and then seized both the excavator and an ATV, driving them to Chinese Landing village. When excavator operator Eon Perry and a second man travelled to the village to retrieve the machines, the association alleged they were again threatened at gunpoint and then chopped. "The attackers then attempted to murder other persons connected with the mining camp," the GGDMA said.
The association made no mention in its statement of the alleged theft of Miller's licensed firearm during Thursday's confrontation — an incident Miller had highlighted when she appeared publicly, visibly injured and covered in mud alongside a wounded elderly man.
"The attackers are known to be (allegedly) involved in illegal mining and are using the leadership of the nearby community to cover their operations while pretending to be victims," the GGDMA said.
GGDMA demands police action
The miners' body called on the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to immediately arrest those it said were sheltering behind Chinese Landing's leadership while preventing legitimate operators from working and conducting what it described as suspected illegal mining of their own. The GGDMA said the GPF had confirmed the incident involved armed threats and the forcible removal of the excavator, as well as the subsequent wounding of a mining company employee — though no official police statement had been issued to the media as of Friday.
APA: an assault on Indigenous rights
The APA took a sharply opposing position. The association said the attack on Toshao Miller should be condemned by all and called on Minister of Amerindian Affairs Sarah Browne-Shadeek to lead a delegation — including the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister of Natural Resources, and the GPF — to Chinese Landing to hear residents directly and provide lasting solutions to what it described as ongoing violations.
"The people of Chinese Landing should never have been made to be in the position of having to physically defend their own titled lands while the State appears to condone the action of the miner," the APA said, adding that the community had been raising concerns about mining activity, intimidation, environmental destruction, and threats for years.
The APA also called on the government to stop, in its words, "hiding behind the veil" of a Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling on the Chinese Landing matter. The association clarified that the CCJ decision in question concerned the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission's authority to enforce a cease-work order under the Amerindian Act — not a broader determination of land rights.
NTC called to act
The APA directed pointed criticism at the National Toshaos Council (NTC), urging it to go beyond issuing what it called "vague statements" and visit Chinese Landing in a show of solidarity. "The NTC parades itself as 'the only legitimate representative body of Indigenous Peoples in Guyana' and now is time for it to represent," the APA said.
The two associations' competing accounts reflect a broader and unresolved dispute over whether mining operations in the Kariako area are lawful and whether Chinese Landing's titled lands are being adequately protected by the state. No independent account of Thursday's events had been confirmed by authorities by the time both statements were released.
Source: Google News GY — Crime