Guyana's Minister of Amerindian Affairs Interferes with Indigenous Community's Vote
TO UNDERSTAND THE LEGAL BASIS FOR THE SIMON FAMILY LAND MATTER ONE NEEDS TO PERUSE THE ATTACHED RELEVANT SECTION OF THE 2006 AMERINDIAN ACT LAWS OF GUYANA:
AS YOU CAN SEE According to part V on page 21 of the 2006 Amerindian Act:
In accordance with section 45 (1), family patriarch Joseph Barnabas Simon, and his wife - Etheldreda Simon (who is still alive to testify to the truth of all this) applied in writing over 50 years ago to the then Village Council, for the 50 acres of land.
In accordance with section 45 (2) Joseph Barnabas Simon was granted 50 acres of land by the then Village Council for him and his wife and children, and multiple successive Village Councils including those of still living ex-Toshao Leyland Clenkian, and Michael Simon, etc - periodically renewed my father's 50 acres land title over the intervening 5 decades.
In accordance with section 45 (3) (a) - the land allocation can be indefinite (this means for an unstated period of time).
In accordance with section 45 3 (b) - it was consistent with the Village's recognition of traditional rights to occupy and use Village lands.
FURTHERMORE:
In accordance with section 45 (4) (a) - Joseph Barnabas Simon NEVER renounced his allocation of 50 acres to any Village Council EVER, therefore the land remained - and remains - the property of his Simon family. Neither was the land abandoned as stated in section 45 4 (b) by the Simon family in those 50 years either, as his sons, Foster Simon and Ernest Simon had intermittent farm plots there alongside their father s also.
Over time as the father and mother saw all the older children obtain houses and land of their own elsewhere, the only thing they did differently as parents - was to state to all the family - that they will leave the 50 acres to their 4 youngest children to build homesteads upon and farm, this was Shirling, Cleveland, Juanita, and Rowena (who married the American non-Amerindian), and Rowena became the first of the four to build her house there. She did so, then over 9 years ago she and her American husband re-migrated back to the USA and left the house in the care and residence father Joseph, mother Etheldreda, brother Cleveland, and sister Juanita & her daughter, and even a little East Indian girl Rowena informally adopted and whom Rowena's siblings have all welcomed into their family, and Rowena expressly stated publicly that her parents and siblings (aforementioned) were to live in the house to maintain it, so that whenever Rowena and her husband and 2 American born children wanted to visit - they would have a comfortable place to stay. Ex-Toshao Ernest Dundas who also issued a renewal of the same 50-acre land title that my father first obtained over 50 years ago - is a witness to this and is still alive for anyone to ask for verification.
There was/is no dispute over the ALLOCATION of lands in this case currently, there arose a dispute over how my Amerindian born and bred village resident sister's non-Amerindian non-Guyanese American husband Billy Nobles could attempt to sell the indigenous Simon family's land that the house rests upon - to anyone, as he has no rights to land in any indigenous community anywhere in Guyana. He can only sell the house he built and the Simon parents gave his wife - their youngest daughter Rowena - permission to erect on their land, but the land was never her husband's to own nor sell.
In accordance with section 6 the Simon family DID notify the Village council of the FIRST illegality of the sale of our land by our deceased sister Rowen's American husband without any free, prior, or informed consent of this indigenous locally born and bred family who own the land, and the SECOND illegality of how only 2 members of the Village Council (one of them is also an employee of the Ministry of Local Government) out of a total of 12 Council members - could meet secretly behind the backs of the other Councilors (whom according to the 2006 Amerindian Act - must ALL be aware and in support of any such sale or it is legally void and invalid) - including a Simon family member Foster Simon who was the Deputy Toshao at the time - and knew nothing of the illegal sale aided and abetted by Mr Andrews who facilitated and expedited this criminal offense.
So on 1st June 2021 in accordance with section 6 of the Amerindian Act which is WITHIN 2 MONTHS (note the Act does not state that it must be after 2 months), the new Village Council asked a Village General meeting to vote and render a final decision...and they did so.
Therefore, the matter has been legally RESOLVED by the majority of Village residents who voted on 1st June 2021 79% in favor of the Simon family at the Village General Meeting - exactly as section 6 of the Amerindian Act clearly states.
ANY alteration/rescinding of this legally binding democratic majority vote final decision rendered on 1st June 2021 by the Minister would be a blatant act of bold-faced political bias and corruption at the highest levels of the government of Guyana.
HOWEVER WE NOW HAVE SHOCKING UPDATED PROOF OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN GUYANA BY GUYANAS MINISTER OF AMERINDIAN AFFAIRS, BECAUSE BY LAW THE MINISTER ONLY HAS A LEGAL RIGHT TO OBTAIN A COPY OF THE LEGALLY BINDING DECISION OF THE ST CUTHBERTS MISSION VILLAGE COUNCIL BASED ON THE 79%-21% DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY VOTE DECLARED ON THE 1st JUNE 2021 VILLAGE GENERAL MEETING ON THIS ISSUE IN THAT COMMUNITY, AND TO READ AND FILE THIS REPORT, NOT A RIGHT TO SUSPEND, OVERRULE OR ALTER A LEGAL DECISION OBTAINED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE 2006 AMERINDIAN ACT THE MINISTER IS SWORN TO UPHOLD AND DEFEND
A TIMELINE OF SCANDAL & ILLEGALITY :
3RD APRIL 2021 - American William Billy Nobles arrives in Guyana, he is met at the airport by Pierre Andrews and goes to stay at Mr Andrews house.
7TH APRIL 2021 - American William Billy Nobles arrives at the house he and his deceased local indigenous wife Rowena Simon Noblesfor the first time and he spends the night, even though the house of Mr Andrews where he has elected to stay is only 3-4 miles away from the house he and his wife built - where his mother-in-law and wife siblings etc have been living and maintaining for the past 9 years, after Rowena and Billy moved back to the USA, and where she had publicly placed her parents and siblings Juanita and Cleveland, niece Roshani, and the informally adopted daughter Adora - of Rowena and Billy. Billy claims he just wants to spend some time alone in the house to grieve his wife in solitude, so he tells Juanita that he wants them to move out to give him this alone time.
12TH APRIL 2021 - Billy returns to the house with Mr Andrews and tells Juanita that if 'all of them - including the 13 year old child Adora he and his wife adopted - don't get out of his house by 14th April he will bring the Police to forcibly put them out'.
14TH APRIL 2021 - Juanita fearing the threat of Police eviction and unaware of her rights - leaves the house with her mother .
17TH APRIL 2021 - Juanita sends a letter to the Minister of Amerindian Affairs pleading for help and highlighting the illegal nature of the eviction of herself and the other family members - including their mother by the husband of their deceased family member Rowena. As Only 2 members of the 12 person then Village Council were involved in this criminal action - when the laws of Guyana in the Amerindian Act of 2006 - clearly state that a majority of Village Council members must be aware of - and approve - and such action.
23RD APRIL - The Simon family learns the truth that Abid & Margaret Hussain have paid the American William Billy Nobles US$40,000 for the house 'and land' (which is also illegal as Mr Nobles never owned and cannot own ANY land in ANY Amerindian community - according to the laws of Guyana.
24TH APRIL 2021 - The Minister grants a private audience to Mr Pierre Andrews and the American William Billy Nobles, but never grants any private or public audience with any Simon family member (to this date of writing 17th June 2021)
25TH APRIL 2021 - the American William Billy Nobles returns to the USA and logs in to his daughter Aderi's Facebook profile - where he pretends to now claim that his children 'never gave up their inheritance rights to the land' - even though when asked PREVIOUSLY by a member of the National Toushaus Council of Guyana to explain how he could sell the house he had in Guyana in the community without his 2 American born half-Amerindian children's consent - Mr Nobles pretended to be his daughter Aderi - and stated clearly that they (the 2 children) relinquish all claims to the property in Guyana and support their fathers selling of the house.'' (see screen shot proof attached).
22ND MAY 2021 - Mr Hussain who purchased the house also so arrogantly stated in the first new village council general meeting on May 22nd 2021 (again this is also on the public record of the Village Council) that no matter what the village council rules “he is not moving “...this infamously belligerent and notoriously greedy and envious man thinks that he is above the laws of Guyana and can get away with whatever he wants.
27TH MAY 2021 dated official letter (which reached he Simon family on 2nd June 2021) the honorable minister herself sent the Simon family AND Village Council a letter (see attached proof) in an official reply LONG AFTER the 17th April 2021 Simon family letter complaining of the illegal way their land was being stolen by the American, where she defended the laws of Guyana and the Amerindian Act, and acknowledged the authority of the village council and the democratic majority vote decision of a village general meeting to deal with the Simon family land issue.
1ST JUNE 2021 - Indigenous community residents came out in their numbers on 1st June 2021 to overwhelmingly vote in favor of the Simon family (157 votes for the Simon family and 41 votes against - which is roughly 79% in Simon family favor, and the Amerindian Act says a majority vote Village General meeting public community decision is legal and final) to recover the Simon family parents land that has been theirs for over 50 years, and which was illegally sold by Wiliam Billy Nobles (an American foreigner and non-Amerindian with no personal rights to own even a grain of sand in any Amerindian community in Guyana according to the 2006 Amerindian Act laws of Guyana) to the Hussain family, without the free, prior, and informed consent of the Simon family, AND behind the backs the full 12 members of the previous Village Council, which again - is a violation of the 2006 Amerindian Act laws of Guyana.
8TH JUNE 2021 - Guyanas Minister of Amerindian Affairs visited the community after a bogus petition supported by the same losing side in the Simon family land case as yet another illegal attempt to win by trying to overthrow the duly elected Village Council which had ruled against them, was investigated and rejected,
9TH JUNE 2021 - The Minister of Amerindian Affairs wrote a letter to the St Cuthberts Mission Village Council (which the VC received on 14th June 2021) instructing them to put the eviction order on hold - that was declared for 16th June 2021 for the Hussain family to move the Americans house off the Simon family land (because the Hussains already have other lands in the community where they already have the largest house in the community erected upon) - by overwhelming democratic vote decision of the community's indigenous residents who voted June 1st 2021 on the issue , stating that the Hussein family (who tried to illegally acquire the local indigenous Simon family land) had complained to the Minister that 'they were not given a fair chance to explain their side of the story' (which would be to explain how they paid a non-indigenous non-Guyanese American Billy Nobles US$40,000 for a house and land that belonged to his deceased wife and her local born and bred siblings - in an indigenous community - which according to the laws of Guyana in the Amerindian Act the American has NO right to land in any indigenous community in Guyana, they would also need to explain why a local member of the then previous Village Council that existed when this crime occurred, and who is himself an employee of the Guyana Ministry of Local Government (and who regularly boasts of being 'good friends with the Minister') secretly arranged with only 1 other Village Coucil member - behind the backs of the other 10 Village Council members - which again is a violation of the laws of indigenous community Village Council protocols outlined in the 2006 Amerindian Act Laws of Guyana - to facilitate this Simon family land theft sale to his friends the Hussain family.
All readers should note that the people who committed these illegal acts are regularly making 2 boasts in the community which are:
1 'The Minister is our friend and she will do whatever we want'
2 - 'We will see to it that the Simon family is left with nothing'
It appears as if the Miniser was not satisfied with the community decision that did not favor the Hussain family - and therefore is now illegally interfering with an already declared legal verdict - and she is bluffing the Village Council that she has some imaginary authority to alter a democratic community majority vote decision of the Village General Meeting, when in fact the Minister has NO-SUCH AUTHORITY. The VC should in fact be fully aware of their rights and refuse to allow the minister to interfere or sabotage the democratic will and verdict of the people, or she will do this to other communities that are afraid of political bullying.
The Hussain family and their local former Village Council member - and current employee of the Ministry of Local Government accomplice Pierre Andrews, vowed to take their case to the Minister of Amerindian Affairs of Guyana (whom they keep boasting is their friend and will do whatever they want) to break the very laws of Guyana enshrined in the 2006 Amerindian Act (that was modernized by her own party by Guyana's new UN Ambassador Caroline Rodriguez Birkett), in their illegal and vain hopes that the Minister of Amerindian Affairs would risk her job, scandalize the name of the honorable President who appointed her to the job 'to uphold and defend the Laws of the 2006 Amerindian Act of Guyana' in the first place and expose the entire Guyana Government to International ridicule and condemnation - by rendering a clearly illegal and blatantly obvious act of political favoritism, by overruling the final legal decision of the majority of village members who voted - in order to grant the minority who lost the vote their desires - in what would be a great eyepass, insult, and political trampling of Indigenous rights in Guyana.
For as a former Minister of Amerindian Affairs who is also closely monitoring this matter just declared:
''Any Court of Law will refer the matter right back to the Administrator of the Amerindian Act - the Minister, who in turn is bound by the decision of the Village General Meeting majority vote by law. If the Minister violates the 2006 Amerindian Act by overruling the Village General Meeting decision, any villager (such as any of my family members - but especially the Village Council itself) can move the matter to the High Court of Guyana to have the Minister's unlawful decision set aside.''
International Indigenous Rights NGO's have already sent letters to UN Ambassador Caroline Rodrigues Birkett bringing her attention to the matter, and International Indigenous news media are also keenly following this case, and ANY hint of criminal conduct and illegal political favoritism WIL be exposed in full detail in the local, regional, and international media and in all the International bodies that focus on Indigenous Rights and Justice - from the OAS to the UN. So if these people think they are going to obtain illegally - what they cannot obtain legally - they are only fooling themselves, the generation of indigenous people today are well aware of our rights and we are not afraid to stand up to anyone who violates them, and we are ready and willing to keep up the fight for as long and far and wide as possible.
WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN POLITICAL INTERFERENCE BY THE MINISTER ORDERING THE VILLAGE COUNCIL TO SUSPEND THE EVICTION OF THE HUSSAIN FAMILY FROM THE RIGHTFUL LEGAL OWNERS - THE SIMON FAMILY, SO THE WORLD IS WATCHING TO SEE WHAT OTHER BRAZEN POLITICAL INTERFERENCE OR AID AND ABETMENT TO CRIMINAL ACTS THAT PERSONAL FRIENDS OF THE MINISTER HAVE COMMITTED - ENSUES. STAY TUNED, WE WILL REVEAL EVERYTHING HERE.
READERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO MESSAGE GUYANA'S NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UNITED NATIONS TO VOICE YOUR CONCERNS OVER THE ILLEGAL POLITICAL INTERFERENCE BY THE MINISTER IN THIS MATTER:
Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett
Permanent Representative of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana to the United Nations
Permanent Mission of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to the UN
801 Second Avenue,
Fifth Floor
New York
New York 10017
USA
Phone: 212-573-5828
Fax: 212 573 6225
Email:Guyana@UN.int
Website:https://www.un.int/guyana/
By Damon Corrie