Residents claim US$100M from Omai
LAWYERS representing residents claiming to be affected by the cyanide waste spill at the Omai gold mine four years ago have filed for some US$100M (G$17,800,000,000) in compensation in court. Essequibo residents, including some with skin rashes they blame on the cyanide waste spill into the Essequibo River in August 1995, were outside the Georgetown High Court yesterday morning as the legal moves were under way. But the two plaintiffs claiming compensation from Omai and its parent company in Canada on behalf of 23,000 residents, heard that they could not get a court order to serve summonses on defendants outside the country. Acting Chief Justice Lennox Perry refused the order because the records showed that dismissed lawyer Eva Rawana-Scott had already been granted one in May this year. However, on the application of lawyer Mr. Mortimer Coddett, for the plaintiffs, the matter will further engage the attention of the Chief Justice this morning when Coddett is expected to make another move for the order. The plaintiffs who now have four days to meet the action target, told the judge they had dismissed Rawana-Scott and when she was supposed to have been granted the order she had already been dismissed. In going through the records, the acting Chief Justice also found that the affidavit on which the order was granted in May was signed by then plaintiff Judith David. But David denied the signature on the document was hers. It was at this stage that Coddett requested that he be permitted to make another try for the order today. The writs and statements of claim filed in the Supreme Court Registry yesterday were based on the cyanide waste spill from the Omai tailings pond into the Essequibo River for several days from August 19, 1995. Since then, a Canadian court hearing a $69M class action against Camboir Inc., the major owner of the mine, filed by Rochorchos Internationales Quebec, on behalf of 23,000 Guyanese, did not take on the matter. That court suggested that Guyana was the ideal place for such a trial. Subsequent to this ruling, Rawana-Scott had filed an action on behalf of those making the claim. The plaintiffs are saying they had dismissed Rawana-Scott and engaged lawyers Coddett and Mr. Storm Westmaas to represent them. A statement issued yesterday said the "people of Essequibo" are filing a lawsuit for, among other things, a guaranteed potable supply of water and compensation for damage done by the mine. It claimed that Omai regularly dumps cyanide and other chemicals harmful to life into the Essequibo River. "The health of workers, people living along the river, plants and animals is being harmed", it said. The statement included a letter to Cambior President, Mr. Louis Gignac copied to President Bharrat Jagdeo, the Canadian Foreign Minister and the Canadian High Commission here. It stated: "The waste being produced at your mine is making us sick. Our people are suffering from unexplained illness among which are skin diseases, vomiting, diarrhoea, eye problems and headaches. "Long and hard suffering people are told there is nothing that can be done." "This letter is notice that we do not intend to accept your poison anymore. We are asking our courts, our fellow citizens and the global community to help us secure our rights to clean water and healthy environment", it read. (GEORGE BARCLAY)
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