Gold Fever in Suriname Continues
7/17/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
17 July 1997
Gold Fever in Suriname Continues.
More mining concessions are being granted in Suriname, a small South
American country that lies between Guyana and French Guiana to the North
of Brazil. Suriname contains one of the last relatively untouched areas
of the Amazon rainforest - over 90% of the country is forested - with
significant biological diversity and a substantial population of endemic
species. This forest is also the ancestral homeland of some 60,000
Indigenous peoples and Maroons. Maroons are the descendants of escaped
African slaves who fought for and won their freedom from the Dutch
colonial administration. Mining policy and activities are conducted with
total disregard for the rights and well being of Indigenous and Tribal
peoples. Their rights to own and control their ancestral lands are not
legally recognized and respected and they are not consulted about
decisions related to land use and management.
Furthermore, Suriname has yet to write and implement an environmental law
to regulate industrial resource exploitation activities, nor can it hope
to be able to monitor the activities of multinationals and others. The
reputations and past performance of the companies involved does not
inspire confidence either. Suriname remains the only country in the
Western hemisphere that does not legally recognize some form of land
rights for Indigenous peoples.
A Commission has been established by the Government to make
recommendations on land rights. However, nothing has been heard from this
Commission in almost 10 months. Also, the Commission has been condemned
by the Association of Indigenous Village Leaders in Suriname for not
incorporating Indigenous and Maroon participation and for failing to use
international standards as the basis for its work. They stated that the
Commission and the Government must publicly accept that Indigenous peoples
and Maroons have a rights to own the land that they occupy and use and
then go about implementing this principle of international law: anything
less is unacceptable and unconstructive. A Gran Krutu (Great Gathering)
held in November 1996 of Indigenous and Maroon leaders demanded that the
granting of concessions cease and activities in existing concessions be
suspended until their land rights have been legally recognized. They
stated that "Our lands are of fundamental importance for our survival as
Indigenous and Tribal peoples. Without the land, forests and rivers there
are no trees, birds, animals and fish and we as Indigenous and Maroon
peoples will not be able to survive."
Golden Star, Cambior and the Proposed Gross Rosebel Mine
Canadian mining companies, Golden Star Resources (based in the USA) and
Cambior Inc., have applied for an exploitation license to mine an
estimated deposit of 1.8 million ounces of gold in the Gross Rosebel
concession.
Papers for incorporating a holding company are presently being processed
by the Surinamese government. The mining plan calls for construction of
at least 5 open pit mines and relocation of the Maroon community of Nieuw
Koffiekamp for the second time in 33 years. The people of Nieuw Koffiekamp
were forcibly relocated in 1963-4 to make way for a hydroelectric dam that
was constructed to power the bauxite refining operations of US company,
ALCOA. Since Golden Star began exploration activities in 1994,
constructing a camp less than 1 km from the village, community leaders
have complained that they have been denied access to their subsistence
gardens, hunting and fishing areas and other places where they conduct
economic activities like small-scale mining and that they are surrounded
by armed guards. They also complain that Golden Star security guards and
the heavily armed police that work with them have used live ammunition to
intimidate them and frighten them away from areas in which the company
wants to work. Golden Star has denied that any shooting incidents have
occurred, except for on one occasion, which they claim is the only such
occurrence.
The companies and the Government claim that they are in the process of
negotiating with the community. They point to a Task Force appointed by
the Government as evidence of this. They don't say, however, that the
mandate of the Task Force is solely to negotiate a resettlement agreement
rather than to examine the question of whether the community consents to
relocation. Behind the scenes, Nieuw Koffiekamp is being subjected to a
great deal of pressure and intimidation to agree to relocate. In a recent
meeting with the Forest Peoples Programme, Cambior stated that while it
was not willing to recognize that the community had the right to give or
withhold consent to relocation, as required by international human rights
law, they did not want to see the community driven off their land. They
would prefer to convince them of the need to move for their own health
and safety.
This came in response to reports from the village that a bodyguard of
former military dictator, Desi Bouterse, had told villagers that if they
did not agree to move they would be driven out by the police and army.
Military rule in the 1980s was characterized by gross and systematic human
rights violations. Bouterse, who is Chairman of the ruling National
Democratic Party, was described by the Inter Press Service (May 7) as the
government's special Advisor on the project. Furthermore, a Golden Star
employee has stated that GSR's paid consultant, Henk Naaarendorp, a close
associate of Bouterse, is an intermediary between GSR and Bouterse and is
used as a negotiator with local communities. The community has thus far
resisted the intimidation and is demanding that the Government and the
companies prove to them that it is absolutely necessary that they be
relocated. Their negotiating body, known as the Kollectief, believes that
coexistence between the community and mining operations can and should be
possible, provided that their rights are recognized and respected. The
position of the companies precludes coexistence: they say that if the
village remains where it is the mine project will not be economically
feasible. The government is backing the companies and appears to have
already given the companies the green light to relocate the village.
A Second OMAI?
Golden Star and Cambior are partners in the infamous OMAI mine in Guyana
that dumped approximately 3-4 million cubic litres of cyanide- and heavy
metal-laced wastes into the Essequibo River when a tailings dam ruptured
on August 19, 1995. This event, described by some as one of the worst
mining disasters in history, was termed by David Fagin, Chairman of Golden
Star, as nothing more than "one of the many risks of doing business"
(Montreal Gazette, Wed., Aug. 30, 1995). Cambior, which initially accepted
liability for reasonable damages related to the dam failure, but later
withdrew this declaration, is now facing multiple suits in Guyanese
courts, a class action suit filed on behalf of Guyanese citizens in a
court in Quebec and adjudication of the case before the International
Peoples' Tribunal on Human Rights and the Environment which met at the end
of June (see, attached Communique, below).The similarities between OMAI
and Gross Rosebel are not limited to the mining companies involved. The
tailings dam in Gross Rosebel is to be constructed by Golder Associates of
Toronto, one of the companies that took part in building the failed dam at
OMAI. The Environmental Impact Statement was undertaken by Rescan of
Vancouver, which also made the assessment for OMAI.
Furthermore, as with OMAI, both the Canadian Export Development
Corporation and the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
have been approached to provide political risk insurance for the mine
project. Additionally, as was the case with Guyana at the time of the OMAI
opening, Suriname does not have any internal environmental laws and
monitoring capacity is non-existent. The companies intend to import
Canadian and US environmental standards to govern its operations, despite
the fact that these standards were not designed to protect tropical forest
environments, where biodiversity and human dependence on the environment
are substantially greater. The Dam Review Committee, established as part
of the Commission of Inquiry to look into the OMAI mine disaster concluded
that the dam failed because of "inadequate application and execution of
sound practice for design, construction, supervision and inspection that
are well understood in current embankment dam and tailings dam
technology." The various companies involved blamed each other for the
failure of the dam. For instance, Canadian company Knight Piesold, the
original contractor for the dam, blamed OMAI itself and Golder for
increasing the dam specifications without consulting them. They pointed
out that Golder did not feel it necessary even to have an onsite engineer
present and simply provided advice to OMAI personnel in charge of
increasing the holding capacity of the tailing pond.
Despite the companies' attempts to disclaim responsibility for the dam
failure, the Dam Review Committee clearly lays the blame on all involved
because all had a role in "design, construction, supervision and
inspection." The United Nations Development Programme also criticized
OMAI stating that "baseline and continuous monitoring at Omai have largely
been inadequate." EDC and MIGA washed their hands of the whole affair.
Evidence from OMAI itself indicates that the company knew, or at least
should have known, that the dam was dangerously overloaded some months
before the dam failed. On March 3, 1995, OMAI announced that it would
have to begin discharging effluent into the Omai river as the tailings
pond that housed it was almost full. After a strong public reaction and
the report of a special review team appointed by the government this
proposal was rejected. Two months later, a spill of cyanide-laced
effluent into the Omai river killed a couple of hundred fish. Although
the company described this as a fluke occurrence, it did not report the
spill to the government for six days and went to great lengths to conceal
the corpses of the dead fish. Company documents included in a
presentation at an international mining conference in Venezuela show that
the company was well aware that the dam was overloaded.
Whether OMAI did know that the pond was dangerously overloaded is a
question that has yet to be answered - if so, they should be held
criminally liable for the consequences. If they didn't know, all
indications are that they should have known. In either case, OMAI and its
partners, GSR and Cambior, do not look good. The President of Suriname
and his Advisor on the environment recently traveled to Washington DC to
meet with the Inter-American Development Bank concerning funding for an
environmental protection agency. However, this may be many years in
development and even longer before it becomes operational. The
development of adequate environmental legislation and enforcement
mechanisms may take as long if not longer. Presently, the Suriname
Government's Geology and Mines Service (GMD) is responsible for monitoring
mining operations: it is understaffed, underqualified and lacking
financial and technical resources.
Comparing GMD to the Guyanese equivalent, GGMC, David Fagin stated that
the GGMC is larger than the GMD and that the GGMC had regularly monitored
the operations of the OMAI mine. It is well known that GGMC's monitoring
of OMAI was and is virtually non-existent - it simply tracks the companies
own monitoring-and history has shown that even if monitoring was occurring
as Fagin claims that this didn't prevent or even foresee the tailings dam
failure of August 19. If GGMC is larger and better equipped that GMD, how
then will GMD be able to monitor mining at Gross Rosebel and identify or
prevent another OMAI mine disaster in Suriname? Given the preceding, the
people of Suriname and especially the forest peoples dependent on the
environmental integrity of their ancestral lands will be forced to rely
upon self-monitoring and self-regulation by the companies. These
companies have shown themselves to be thoroughly unreliable on this score
previously.
Moreover, David Fagin stated previously that his company "had looked
increasingly at the Guyana Shield because of increased pressure from
environmentalists and the government in the United States." This
statement speaks for itself and supports the conclusion held by many that
the root cause of the OMAI disaster was cost cutting at the expense of the
environment and local communities - one of the many risks of doing
business with Golden Star and Cambior? If the Gross Rosebel mine goes
ahead as planned, GSR, Cambior and Golder will once again be in charge of
constructing and monitoring a tailings dam at Gross Rosebel and there is
no Essequibo river nearby to dilute the cyanide once released into the
environment as there was at OMAI.
BHP, GSR and Maroons.
Australian mining giant, Broken Hill Propriety and Golden Star recently
signed a joint venture deal on two concessions being explored by GSR in
Suriname: the Tapanahony and Tempati concessions. BHP and GSR have split
exploration and future mine development costs 60-40, respectively.
The Tapanahony concession encompasses a number of N'djuka Maroon
communities, including the village of Granman (paramount leader) Gazon.
The affected communities were not consulted or informed prior to the
granting of the concession. BHP is well known for disputes with Aboriginal
peoples in Australia and for environmental degradation elsewhere. For
instance, it was recently forced to settle a lawsuit filed in Australia by
Indigenous landowners from Papua New Guinea complaining about severe
environmental damage caused by its Ok Tedi copper mine. The company had
been dumping toxic wastes directly into the 1100 kilometer long Fly river
rather than build a containment facility. High levels of cyanide and
heavy metals were detected up to 80 km downstream from the mine. The
compensation package is said to amount to approximately US$87 million over
the next 15 years and was agreed upon in exchange for dropping all
lawsuits against BHP in Australia and PNG. Golden Star and BHP have also
signed joint venture agreements to explore concessions in Guyana. Their
activities in Guyana have also brought them into conflict with Indigenous
peoples. The community of Santa Rosa vigorously objected to GSR's
proposed operations on their lands. In a letter to the Government
demanding that the prospecting license be withdrawn they stated:
Multinational mining companies in general have a record of only
providing temporary employment for some of our people but having long term
negative impacts of undermining our culture and leaving permanent
destruction and devastation of the animals and the environment on which we
depend on for our continued survival. We trust that you will not view it
as necessary to contribute to my people's genocide in exchange for
monetary gains.
GSR's response was to, "at this point in time," abandon plans to take
samples in Santa Rosa village in light of community objections to their
presence.
In addition to Nieuw Koffiekamp, Indigenous peoples in Suriname have also
complained about Golden Star activities. The communities of Cassipora and
Kwamalasemutu both complained that GSR was on their land without their
consent. Kwamalasemutu complained that they were tricked by Henk
Naarendorp into signing a letter stating that they had no objection to his
company acquiring a concession on their land: Golden Star later began
operations in the concession. Their allegations were substantiated by the
Association of Indigenous Village Leaders in Suriname which investigated
the situation in January 1997. With regard to the activities of Golden
Star in general, the Gran Krutu of Indigenous and Maroon leaders demanded
"that the activities of this company are stopped until we are fully aware
of the influence of its activities in our living-areas and until our land
rights are legally recognized and our territories soundly demarcated."
They expressed disbelief and outrage that the Government could grant
hundreds of thousands of hectares of land in concession to Golden Star,
while the Government refused to legally recognize their rights to even one
hectare of their ancestral land.
Canarc Resource Corp.
Canarc Resource Corp., a Canadian mining company, recently acquired three
new mining concessions in the Brokopondo District of Suriname. These
three concessions total 118,410 hectares, making Canarc, in its words,
"one of the largest strategic mineral landholdings in Suriname, with
382,000 hectares now being explored in 12 separate properties." Each of
the three new concessions lies in the vicinity of the proposed Gross
Rosebel concession held by Golden Star and Cambior. A number of Maroon
communities are affected by these concessions none of which were informed
or consulted prior to granting of the concessions.
Canarc's activities in the Baramita region of Guyana, where it was working
jointly with Echo Bay, one of its major shareholders, brought it into
conflict with local Indigenous peoples there. Indeed, the situation had
become so bad that Survival International, a London-based human rights
organization, felt it necessary to issue an urgent action bulletin asking
people to express their concerns in writing to the company and the
Government of Guyana. Canarc and Echo Bay, have now ceased exploration at
Baramita. Echo Bay has the dubious distinction of having received the
largest ever fine under the US Migratory Birds Treaty Act for poisoning
900 birds with cyanide at its McCoy/Clove mine iin Nevada.Canarc also
recentl announced drilling results that indicate that there may be
commercially viable gold deposits in their Benzdorp property in Suriname.
Golden Star, working with NaNa Resources, owned by Henk Naarendorp, as
well as another Canadian company, Blue Ribbon, have also announced
possible commercial finds in the Benzdorp concession. This area is part
of the traditional territory of the Wayana and Aluku peoples. In the
Jungle Queen A zone of their concession, Canarc intends to begin drilling
to 300 metres depth to further define a deposit. They claim that should
their surface results be consistent to this depth, the size of the deposit
would be approximately 5 million ounces of gold.
Homestake Mining
Homestake Mining, a US company, is now conducting exploration operations
in Suriname. Homestake is notorious for its lengthy dispute with the
Lakota people in the United States over mining in their sacred Black
Hills. Recently, the municipality of Maripasoula in neigbouring French
Guiana filed a complaint with French authorities stating that Homestake
were prospecting without a license on the Crique Bois Blanc, an area that
they had set aside to be used as an eco-tourism reserve. French
authorities are investigating.
For further information, please contact:
Forest Peoples Programme. 1c Fosseway Business Centre Stratford Road
Moreton-in-Marsh GL56 9NQ England Ph.44.1608.652.893 Fax.
44.1608.652.878 EMail:WRM@gn.apc.org