The Guyana government Tuesday said it had ordered an “immediate probe” into an incident in which an armed foreign security guard working for a Russian company, was seen assaulting a local miner.
The Ministry of Natural Resources said the incident, which was captured on video and has since gone viral, clearly shows the armed security guard behaving in an aggressive, hostile and condescending manner towards the man who appears to be a Guyanese national.
“The images are disturbing on many levels and raise issues about security, the authority of foreigners to carry arms and conflict resolution in the mining sector. To this end, the Minister of Natural Resources has instructed the Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and the Director of the Corps of Wardens to launch an immediate investigation to ascertain the veracity of the video and to solicit the support of the Guyana Police Force in their investigation”, the Ministry of Natural Resources said in a statement.
In the video, the foreign security guard could be seen questioning the local miner before the two got into a row and the foreigner punches the local miner before drawing his gun.
President of the New York based, Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy, Rickford Burke, who first released the video on his Facebook page, said the incident occurred on April 3, 2018, when Guyanese ranger Ken Edwards and Charles Clarke, employees of Hopkinson Mining Logistics, were executing their normal duties, near the Quartzstone River, when they were intercepted by two expatriates, identified as operatives of West Bank Demerara Gold Inc.
He said the Russians attempted to prohibit the Hopkinson workers from entering further on the property.
