THE ‘BEAST’ HAS now has a different name, but, given the design, actually looks exactly like its predecessors, none of which were successful. The working group ‘Policy and Management Team Transformation of Artisanal Gold Mining’ has on Thursday a plan presented to President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons. She calls the plan “not perfect”, but that there must be a starting point.
The ‘not perfect plan’ provides for a phased approach, with pilots being carried out first. Mining rights holders, machine owners and persons currently operating illegally in the sector will be registered and, where possible, included in an organized system. “Facilities such as work and residence permits and access to healthcare are also part of the proposed approach,” the Suriname Communications Service said.
Why not take action against the illegal gold diggers in the country, who are damaging the environment even more than the Mennonites have done so far?
Anyone who reads this will undoubtedly get flashbacks to 2021, when the Gold Sector Regulation Committee, led by Gerold Dompig, was active. With fast boats and sturdy cars, the committee went inland to register workers. Anyone who had a machine had to be registered and report to the tax authorities.
The great display was short-lived: the operation, which incidentally cost a lot of money, died a certain death. The only reminders of this period are the broken wagons on the grounds of the Geological Mining Survey, on which the logo of that time can still be seen.
The Santokhi/Brunswijk government then made a plan. It would not only involve registration, but gold seekers would also receive a card with a code with which they would have to sell their gold. The committee was called the Small-scale Gold Sector Regulation and was led by Wesley Rozenhout, the former director of Grassalco, under whose directorship about four kilos of gold disappeared from the company last year.
Rozenhout fought under Ronnie Brunswijk during the Internal War. As vice president and gold entrepreneur, Brunswijk had to be kept informed by Rozenhout of the committee’s progress. That was also – quite predictably – not a success.
Geerlings-Simons has proclaimed from the rooftops that she does not want to repeat herself. “What they did didn’t work,” she told the press several times. Yet the plans of this working group, as described in the press release, actually resemble exactly the approach of the two previous committees. So what will ensure that it succeeds this time?
It is remarkable that Geerlings-Simons, like her predecessors, apparently opts for the ‘velvet glove’ approach. Illegals must be made legal. And it looks like it will again cost the state quite a bit to realize this. Other countries, such as French Guiana and Brazil, are taking a more rigorous approach. Anyone staying in the country illegally must leave. Properties used to extract gold illegally are then destroyed.
It is hoped that the approach will be stricter and that illegal gold seekers who commit criminal acts – because illegal gold mining is a criminal offense – will be punished instead of being pampered.
The issue surrounding the Mennonites has shown that the government can indeed put its money where its mouth is. Why not take action against the illegal gold diggers in the country, who are damaging the environment even more than the Mennonites have done so far? The answer to that is yet to come.
