Sébastien Lecornu.

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Jacques Witt / SIPA

The fight against illegal gold panning is intensifying in Guyana.

While it is already mobilizing the army, the police and the judiciary, it could benefit from a better structuring of the legal sector, said the Minister of Overseas, Sébastien Lecornu on Wednesday.

“I have the weakness to think that the more we structure the legal sector, the better we fight against illegal gold panning.

I am going to go further, the more we structure a legal sector of small, human-scale exploitations, clearly the opposite of the Montagne d'Or type mega-mines, the more we can fight against illegal gold panning ”, assured the Minister during his hearing by a commission of inquiry into the fight against clandestine gold panning in Guyana, at the National Assembly.

Hearing by the @AssembleeNat commission of inquiry on the fight against illegal gold panning in Guyana.

The @gouvernementFR is fully mobilized on the repressive, diplomatic, environmental, social and economic aspects to fight against this scourge.

pic.twitter.com/VfoSADQ001

- Sébastien Lecornu (@SebLecornu) March 17, 2021

387 kilos of mercury and 28 kilos of gold seized between 2018 and 2020

“Between 2018 and 2020, 75 million euros of criminal assets were seized, or 25 million euros per year.

These are 387 kilos of mercury seized and 28 kilos of gold, including 6.9 in 2020 ”.

At the criminal level, "180 people were placed in police custody and 99 people were the subject of a sentence", enumerated Sébastien Lecornu.

“For a ton of legally mined gold, you have 10 tonnes of illegally mined gold.

We can see that there is necessarily a margin of positive progress for the legal ", he indicated, denouncing a" scandalous "figure.

Because "the adversary", the "garimpero" or the underground miner, is "formidably professional".

The minister described "a robust organization which relies on a well-oiled economic model, in which the gains are systematically greater than the losses".

According to him, there would be "virtues in assigning these gold seizures to the fight against illegal gold panning", at the "citizen" level.

"A war" according to the deputy of Guyana

Questioned by the deputy (GDR) of Guyana Gabriel Serville who asked, to respond to the exasperation of the Guyanese, that France equips itself with a legislative arsenal to be able to truly wage "a war" against "enemies ", The minister indicated that we were not" in certain countries of South America ".

"Yes it takes evidence to prosecute, yes, there is the presumption of innocence, yes, there is adversarial in court and yes, it takes self-defense so that the police can make use of their weapons ”, he indicated adding to be“ rather proud that it happens as it happens in France ”.

World

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Planet

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