Respectfully, Ahni.

This is what development looks like
Part I: Skye Resources and Land Reoccupation in Guatemala

and here’s part II
Part II: Canadian mining firm burns homes

YOUR CPP CONTRIBUTIONS: FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL TO EXPLOITATION IN GUATEMALA, By Victoria Henderson, December 2006 (Queens University, Kingston ON, Canada)

If you were to follow the money trail of your Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions it would lead you, among other disturbing places, to a remote municipality on the northwest shores of Lake Izabal, Guatemala, where a Vancouver-based mining company, indirectly funded by our pension plan, is capitalizing on the exploitation of indigenous land and culture.

Skye Resources (TSX:SKR) holds an exploratory mining license for 300-square-kilometres of land in the municipality of El Estor. According to indigenous elders in the region, Skye is far from the responsible mining company it claims itself to be. Contrary to the image Skye has branded for its shareholders and investors, many Qeqchi Maya say the company has fallen flat on its promises of corporate social responsibility.

The struggle between Skye and indigenous communities in El Estor should be cause for concern among Queens University students, faculty, and staff. Act for the Earth, a peace, ecology and human rights group headquartered in Toronto, reports that CPP currently holds shares worth more than $130-million in INCO, which is both a key shareholder in Skye Resources and the previous owner of the El Estor mine.

Repackaged as the Fenix Project and managed by Skyes wholly owned Guatemalan subsidiary, Compana Guatemalteca de Nuuel (CGN), the El Estor mine is expected to produce up to twenty-five million pounds of ferro-nickel per year by 2008, and up to fifty-million pounds per year thereafter. Not surprisingly, the rebirth of INCOs Guatemalan albatross is opposed by many Qeqchi Maya, who remember all too well the environmental and human rights abuses that tarnished Canadas last mining experiment in El Estor.

INCOs history in El Estor is riddled with counts of military collusion and murder. Guatemalas Comisin de Esclarecimiento Histrico or Truth Commission, which was responsible for documenting abuses committed during the countrys 36-year civil war, implicates INCOs Guatemalan subsidiary, EXMIBAL, in a number of cases, including:

Case 9401 (1978) in which military commissioners and EXMIBAL employees executed four persons, one of whom was a mine worker, in Santa Maria Cahaboncito;

Case 1145 (1981) in which members of the judicial police traveling in an EXMIBAL vehicle abducted a community leader from El Estor who was later found murdered; and

Case 100 (1971), which documents the murder of a Guatemalan Congressman vocally opposed to the concession of a mining license to EXMIBAL. (Cases are available for review in English on the website of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.)

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Fenix Project site and speak with the Skye/CGN community relations team, as well as to meet, in private interviews and public meetings, with members of local indigenous communities. Much of the information I was given by Skye/CGN was refuted by the Qeqchi Maya with whom I spoke. Discrepancies between the parties centered on four main issues: property rights, environmental protection, social services, and community relations.

Property rights are a messy issue at best in Guatemala. The situation is complicated not only by missing or altered documentation, but also by the fact that land transactions involving Maya peoples are often conducted under pressure and in Spanish, which problematizes the extent to which monolingual Maya speakers might be bound by the rule of informed consent.

One of the central land disputes in El Estor involves Qeqchi Maya from the community of Chichipate. According to CGN plant manager Roberto Dala, Skye Resources donated a portion of company lands to the Chichipate community. Notwithstanding the fact that there are legal and ethical implications surrounding whether land originally stolen from the Maya may be rightfully re-gifted at a later date, there is a question of contemporary property title. The elders of Chichipate maintain that they have held individual title to lands in the area for more than thirty years. This is what hurts us the most, one Chichipate elder told me referring to Skye/CGN, that they say they are the owners of our land. They walk all over us.

On its website, Skye acknowledges that it has entered into an agreement with the Guatemalan government to survey and document land holdings in the region. No mention is made of the companys apparent conflict of interest in this endeavour. In response to a frequently asked question over land tenure, Skyes website states that Fenix Project activity will be limited until the surveys are complete and agreement with the communities can be reached.

Despite this assurance to investors, however, the company has proceeded with exploratory drilling on contested lands. Further, Skye has reclaimed property previously leased to indigenous villages for subsistence farming. The affected villages argue that they have not been fairly compensated and say they have no other alternatives for food security.

I have been working this land since I was a young boy, an elderly gentleman from Cahaboncito told a public meeting on mining held in El Estor this summer. I am getting old. I now have grey hair… And we still have not achieved the dream of controlling our own land. The gentleman went on to explain that Skye/CGN no longer permits locals to collect firewood from the mountains or to cultivate maize in the fields. This despite reports that large tracts of land owned by Skye have recently been leased to Guatemalan elites for large-scale cattle ranching. It is not only the suffering of an individual, the gentleman concluded, it is also the suffering of a community.

Land disputes in El Estor are informed by fundamentally opposed worldviews. During my meeting with CGN officials I was repeatedly told that land exploited by the Fenix Project will be returned to its natural condition. Defended by volumes of statistical projections, this impassive understanding is fully at odds with Maya cosmovision, which understands land not only as a source of sustenance but also as a source of spirituality. Referring to Skyes proposed earth-recovery strategy, a Qeqchi Maya woman told me: For us, it is just not acceptable that the company scrapes away the earth, removes the nickel, and then puts the earth back again as if nothing had happened.

Skye has vowed to respect Maya cosmovision. However, it remains unclear how large-scale mining can be reconciled with traditional environmental knowledge. Moreover, there remain serious concerns in El Estor about the extent to which mining may damage crops and pollute vital water sources.
Given the precedent set by INCO thirty years ago, few would dare suggest that the Qeqchi Maya do not have legitimate cause for concern. Questions over how INCO directed its Guatemalan subsidiary EXMIBAL to dispose of toxic tailings from the mine, for example, remain unanswered.

Skye/CGN positions itself as a socially responsible mining company. Officials state that the companys social works project, code-named Raxche (green tree of hope in Qeqchi), is mandated to improve health and education for residents of the municipality. Many locals, however, are skeptical, suggesting that Raxche is more of a marketing vehicle for the mining company than it is a catalyst for sustainable community development.

In questioning Chichipate elders about the types of social services provided to their community under the rubric of Raxche, I was told that the only thing Skye/CGN has done is to supply paint for the local basketball court on the proviso that the backboards display the CGN logo. At least one member of the municipality expressed the view that Raxche is nothing more than a means to divide the indigenous population, with those supporting the Fenix Project being the only ones to benefit from Skye/CGNs social services.

The sincerity of Skyes community relations policy in El Estor is open to debate. Certainly, the CGN officials with whom I spoke insisted that all efforts are being made to engage Qeqchi Maya in positive dialogue. Skye has made similar claims, vowing on its website to provide open and transparent communication on all issues and concerns related to the Fenix Project. Yet, by all accounts, Skye/CGN appears to be engaged in a highly confrontational and culturally insensitive community relations policy.

The Maya elders with whom I spoke questioned why it should be the case that community information sessions are held on Skye/CGN property. This issue is highly problematic: not only because it is extremely difficult for members of remote communities to secure transportation to the mine site, but also because it lends itself to the notion of a turf war in which home-court advantage goes to Skye/CGN by default.

Equally disconcerting are the companys marketing materials, which feature full-colour posters of smiling Maya children in traditional dress and a tagline that reads: Our highest priority, our future. Skye/CGNs appropriation of indigenous cultural identity to promote a project to which many Maya are opposed is both tactless and indefensible.

In its 2006 Progress Report on Community Engagement, Skye stresses that it has repeatedly reviewed and revised its approach to building relationships with key communities. The irony is that key communities may be those beyond El Estor. Rumours abound that Skye/CGN is progressively isolating local resistance by courting labourers from outside of the municipality.
Locals have told me that the company is actively recruiting workers from as far away as Coban workers who have no territorial or familial links to the municipality and who, therefore, are less likely to oppose the Fenix Project.

Underwriting all of these issues for the Qeqchi Maya in El Estor is a concern, shared by many in the global south, that responsible mining, even if it were to adhere to a set of best practices, operates within an economic structure that disproportionately benefits northern companies and their home economies to the continued detriment of those communities whose resources we exploit.

At a minimum, we should call on the Canadian government to stop using our pension plan to invest in companies that fail to secure the approval of those members of host communities who have the most to lose by our presence.

Moreover, we should demand accountability from other investment bodies (including private pension plans, mutual funds, and banks), many of which contribute to abusive mining practices but are not required to publicly disclose their investments.

[Victoria Henderson is an MA Candidate in the Department of Geography at Queens. In August 2006, she joined colleagues from the University of Northern British Columbia on a delegation to El Estor. The delegation was led by Rights Action, a community development, environmental and human rights organization with offices in Canada, the United States, and Guatemala.]

Photo essays on the forced evictions:
http://mimundo-jamesrodriguez.blogspot.com

Contact Information

- Write a letter to your local Member of Parliament protesting the investment of Canada Pension Plan funds in resource extraction.
- Contact Skye Resources and demand that the company revamp its community relations policy, refrain from inventing or exaggerating its role in providing local communities with property and social services, and reconsider what it will take to come clean on its promise to respect Maya cosmovision.
- Consider joining a delegation to observe first-hand how north-south issues play out in places like El Estor — info@rightsaction.org / http://www.rightsaction.org

Ian Austin, President and CEO, Skye Resources Suite 1203-700 West Pender Street Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6C 1G8 info@skyeresources.com. With copies to your own politicians and to: Better Business Bureau, Vancouver, inquiries@bbbvan.org; Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, contact@business-humanrights.org; INCO nickel company, General Inquiries, inco@inco.com; INCO, Investor Relations, investor@inco.com; INCO, Media Relations, media@inco.com.

ANOTHER UPDATE

On January 16, 2007, 200 Guatemalan national police, accompanied by 2 trucks of soldiers, went again to forcibly evict the 5 places that were forcibly evicted last week. [See attached article by Dawn Paley. See 10-minute video clip of the evictions, http://www.rightsaction.org/video/elector, and a photo essay, http://mimundo-jamesrodriguez.blogspot.com

They were again accompanied by Carlos Rafael Andrade, of the attorney general's office of the municipality of La Tinta.

These forced evictions [dating back to November 2006 - see attached article by Grahame Russell] were requested by the CGN - Guatemalan Nickel Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadian Skye Resources nickel company.

In one of the 5 communities, Lote 8, the impoverished Mayan-Q’eqchi’
families fled into the forest, before the arrival of the police and soldiers, who then proceeded to burn and re-burn the simple huts of bamboo and thatched roofs - the remaining ones that had not been burned last week.

In the community of La Paz, the soldiers and police did not burn the huts, due to the presence of the Human Rights Ombudsman’s office. In the communities of La Pista and Revolución, the people fled into the forest before the arrival of the soldiers and police.

In the Union community, just outside of the town of El Estor, there was a confrontation between community members and the armed forces. The armed forces shot tear gas canisters in to the living area, where women and children were overcome with the fumes. A group of the community, joined by alleged gang members from El Estor, knocked down an electrical post, blocking one of the entries to the Union community.

Shots were fired, but there is no news of people wounded or killed. The Town Patrollers - formed by the mayor of El Estor [Rigoberto Chub] - arrived on the scene in 3 pick-up trucks, firing their guns into the air and the community group dispersed. [The Town Patrollers is an illegal para-military organization]

In the evening, the police and soldiers retreated, leaving town security presumably in the hands of the mayor’s Town Patrols. The government office of agrarian affairs informed that there had been threats to burn the offices of the Defensoria Q’eqchi’ [AEPDI]. Based on a request from the Defensoria Q’eqchi’, the district commissioner agreed not to have all the police retreat from the area, leaving the area with no official security forces.

Community members of the 5 communities have said they will not re-occupy their communities and are willing to participate in multi-party meetings headed by the Bishop of Izabal, Monseñor Gabriel Peñate.

[Information translated by Rights Action]

P. Daniel Vogt, Director y Representante Legal, Asociación Estoreña Para el Desarrollo Integral, AEPDI, El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala

GUATEMALA: CANADIAN SKYE RESOURCES MINING COMPANY FORCIBLY EVICTS Q’EQ’CHI MAYAN COMMUNITIES

CONIC (National Campesino and Indigenous Coordination, a Rights Action partner group) announces to the people of Guatemala and the international community that:

1. On January 8, 2007, the GAR (private police forces) and the armed forces violently evicted 80 Q’eq’chi families from the community of La Pista and
228 families from La Union, in the region of El Estor, Izabal.

2. At 10AM on January 9, the community of La Revolución, also in El Estor, Isabal, was evicted, affecting 175 Q’eq’chi families occupying some 1800 hectares (40 caballerías).

3. The evictions took place in the absence of a public prosecutor and without a court order. The eviction was carried out by 650 soldiers and police, accompanied by a private gray, white and blue helicopter, which flew low over the communities in order to intimidate the inhabitants.

4. The evicted families lost 18 homes which were burned and destroyed by chainsaws in hands of individuals hired by the Guatemala Nickel Company (wholly owned subsidiary of Skye Resources Inc.), which claims to own the land on which these families live.

5. We are also concerned about the fate of the 80 families of the community of La Paz in the region of Panzos, Alta Verapaz, which the Guatemala Nickel Company also claims as its property. However, these families have begun negotiations with COSIRSA, and possess documents that will help further the process. The police have been on the scene since 10AM today, entering homes and surrounding the community. Once again, they do not have a court order, which makes this an extrajudicial eviction.

This is the GANA Government’s policy in the face of demands from the Mayan and campesino communities, favouring transnational companies like Skye Resources/ CGN which keep plundering our country’s natural resources, leaving behind only poverty, hunger and unemployment for the Mayan peoples.

This is how we began 2007 - with violent evictions - despite the government’s propaganda to the contrary.

WE DEMAND that the government stop these evictions and make reparations to the affected communities for the damage caused.

WE URGE THE MAYAN AND CAMPESINO COMMUNITIES to rise up in struggle and resistance to defend our lands and our lives. Resistance and defense of our rights is legitimate.

TO THE MAYAN AND CAMPESINO ORGANIZATIONS AND THE PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT IN GENERAL, we appeal for your solidarity with the families affected by these evictions. Let us all rise up together in our struggles.

Guatemala, 1954, Guatemalan history is marked by the Cold War between the U.S. and the USSR. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with a small group of Guatemalans, overthrew the freely-elected Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 after the government expropriated unused land owned by the United Fruit Company, a U.S.-based banana merchant. The CIA codename for the coup was Operation PBSUCCESS, its second successful overthrow of a foreign government. The subsequent military rule, beginning with dictator Carlos Castillo Armas, led to over 30 years of civil war that, from 1960, led to the death of an estimated 200,000 Guatemalan civilians. Due to the military’s use of rampant torture, disappearances, “scorched earth” warfare and many other brutal methods, the country became a pariah state internationally.

From the 1950s to the 1990s (with a suspension of military aid between 1977 and 1982), the US government directly supported Guatemala’s army with training, weapons and money. The United States Army Special Forces (Green Berets) were sent to Guatemala to transform its army into a “modern counter-insurgency force” and made it the most powerful and sophisticated in Central America. CIA involvement included the training of 5,000 Cubans opposed to Fidel Castro and airstrips in its territory for what later became the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. In 1999, then US president Bill Clinton stated that the United States was wrong to have provided support to Guatemalan military forces that took part in the brutal civilian killings.

—

Guatemala - Prevent further violence in the land disputes between Maya Q’eqchi’ communities and a Canadian owned mining company

November 21, 2006

We are sending this strategic action in the hope that your letters and emails will prevent further violence in the land disputes between Maya Q’eqchi’ communities and a Canadian owned mining company in El Estor, northeastern Guatemala.

The Defensoría Q’eqchi’ (an indigenous rights organization) in El Estor has contacted the SJC because the violence is escalating quickly and they fear it will result in deaths. The SJC asks you to email Peter McKay and the Guatemalan Ambassador to Canada expressing your concern for the people living in these communities. Key points to include in your email or letter appear at the end of this email.

Summary

The 1996 Peace Accords outline several land reforms which the Guatemalan government has failed to implement. This has resulted in land disputes which the government resolves by force, calling in the military to forcibly evict those who are occupying the land, namely indigenous groups. Many groups are currently trying to gain legal title to their lands.

In September 2006, indigenous groups began occupying land that two Canadian mining companies, Inco and Skye Resources, both claim to own. Inco has granted land to Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN), a subsidiary of Skye Resources, for the restart of nickel mining in El Estor. Inco and Skye Resources filed charges against the indigenous groups, but there was no police intervention until Nov. 12, 2006. To
date, there have been forced evictions and a series of conflicts and skirmishes between indigenous groups, police, company employees, and townspeople that are outlined below.

Representatives of the Defensoria Q’eqchi’ have both received calls and verbal reports that their homes and the office of the Defensoría were going to be burned, and that their lives were in danger.

Background

Contested Land Used for Mining:
Maya Q’eqchi’ communities represent more than 90% of the population of El Estor, totaling over 35,000 persons, scattered over an area of nearly 3,000 km2. The Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines has granted more than 1,000 km2 of the area of El Estor to international mining companies for the purposes of exploration and exploitation of nickel using a strip mining process. Nearly all of these areas are lands on which indigenous communities live and work. Some have titles to their lands, but many are still in the process of collective titling of the lands they possess.

September 17, 2006, several groups of indigenous families began to occupy lands that Inco claims as its own. Inco has granted these same lands to Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN), a subsidiary of Skye Resources of Vancouver, British Columbia, for the restart of nickel mining in El Estor. Since the occupations began, Skye officials have been adamant that the company would not negotiate with anyone who breaks the law. This has led to a stand off.

September 17, 2006 five groups numbering some 300 families occupied lands that the company claims as its own. Two of the groups have occupied lands near Cahaboncito in Alta Verapaz. Those groups claim that the same lands were taken from them when the mine project was begun over 40 years ago. Another group occupied lands near the village of Chichipate, 15 km to the west of the town of El Estor with similar historical claims. Two other groups, mostly of townspeople, occupied an area near the company airstrip and an area to the north of the abandoned company housing complex. Inco’s and Skye’s representatives in Guatemala filed charges against the groups in September. Until November 12, the authorities had not intervened in any of these land occupations, and the total number of those occupying the disputed lands had grown to nearly 1,000 families.

Police Confrontation:
November 11 A group of about 30 families occupied an area across the road from the company housing complex on the outskirts of El Estor. About an hour later, police clashed with the group. A few hours later there was a skirmish with some company employees and at one point a
group of persons held a bus transporting CGN workers. In the late morning representatives from the Secretariat of Agrarian Issues met with the group’s leaders and also leaders of the other occupying groups along with the police. Some community leaders stated tentatively that at least some of the occupied lands would be evacuated so as to initiate a dialogue with the mining company.

Forced Evictions and Increasing Violence:
November 12, Sunday morning A prosecutor from the Ministerio Público, Rafael Andrade, arrived in El Estor and with about 60 police notified the group on the outskirts of the town that they were breaking the law and had to abandon the site. Waldemar Barrera, head of the human rights ombudsman’s office in Puerto Barrios (140 km from El Estor), telephoned Arnoldo Yat, Coordinator of the Defensoría Q’eqchi’ to inquire about a possible forced eviction. Yat and Fr. Daniel Vogt, Director of the organization went to the site, questioned the prosecutor about his actions and tried to defused the situation so that violence would be avoided during the eviction. By midday, the group had left the site calmly carrying with them their makeshift materials. However, an ever-growing group of townspeople, some carrying machetes, began to gather and throw stones at a pickup truck from the company. Yat and Fr. Vogt left the scene when the group appeared to become violent in reaction to the police and the eviction carried out.

November 12, as the day passed, the police went to the site occupied by the airstrip, and forcibly evicted its occupants using tear gas. At 7:00 pm, they went to Chichipate where they likewise fired tear gas into the settlement to evict its inhabitants. In all of these incidents, there were verbal reports of one policeman hurt by a thrown stone, two or three persons arrested and two disappeared (both later discovered, one of whom was seriously beaten allegedly by the police discovered by the ombudsman’s representative on Monday the 13th, the other reappeared on his own). Groups of people erected roadblocks and burned a kiosk used for training sessions at the office of community relations of the company.

Indigenous Rights Activists Threatened:
On Monday November 13, representatives from the human rights ombudsman’s office and the Defensoría went to the evicted sites and interviewed witnesses about the actions of the police and prosecutor. In the afternoon, there were clashes with groups and police and in the late afternoon, the community relations building and the recently renovated but not yet occupied hospital of the company were burned. The police remained in their station as a mob roamed through the town and set fire to one of the local mayor’s houses (used for social events). Both Arnoldo Yat and Fr. Vogt received calls and verbal reports that their homes and the office of the Defensoría were going to be burned, and that their lives were in danger.

On November 14 a large number of police came to El Estor and restored a tense calm. That same day, 4 of the groups agreed to leave the land they had occupied and dialogue with CGN. Previously the company had stated that its condition for dialogue was the abandonment of the occupied sites.

In the afternoon of the 15th, Arnoldo Yat and Fr. Daniel Vogt were summoned to appear at the Ministerio Público’s office in La Tinta on Friday the 17th to declare as witnesses regarding the disturbances that had occurred.

Community Meeting Disrupted by Armed Police:
Previous to the disturbances, the Catholic bishop of the local diocese of Izabal, Gabriel Peñate, had convened a meeting inviting the Secretariat of Agrarian Issues, the Presidential Human Rights office, the human rights ombudsman’s office, Defensoría Q’eqchi’, NGOs and community group leaders, as well as CGN, to a meeting for dialogue on November 16 at the local Catholic parish. CGN did not participate. Shortly after the meeting had begun two machine gun armed police arrived and inquired who had convened the meeting. When the bishop stated his responsibility, the police called him away and questioned him about the nature of the meeting stating that they were acting on orders. The results of the meeting were to reconvene still another meeting to try to convince CGN to dialogue, as well as to assure the community leaders that there were several institutions working to find a non violent and just resolution to the problems at hand.

Indigenous Rights Activists Accused of Instigating Conflict:
On the morning of the 17th upon arriving at the Ministerio Público’s office, Fr. Vogt and Arnoldo Yat, accompanied by a representative of the ombudsman’s office and their lawyer, met Sergio Monzón, General Manager of CGN as he was leaving the same office accompanied by three other men. Greetings were exchanged. Upon entering, Fr. Vogt and Yat met with the prosecutor, Rafael Andrade, the same person who had conducted the forced evictions several days before. He said that Monzón and his companions wanted Fr. Vogt and Yat to be arrested because they are the “intellectual authors” of the whole conflict regarding the company’s lands. The prosecutor stated that Monzón and his companions also wanted Fr. Vogt and Yat to be detained immediately under the provisions of laws regarding organized crime. Andrade further stated that although Fr. Vogt and Yat had been called as witnesses, they were being investigated as suspects because there was information that was not in the charges filed, which indicated that the Defensoría had fired arms during the disturbances and also instigated the conflict. Andrade stated that he was conducting a full investigation and that for the moment Fr. Vogt and Yat would not be arrested, but that they were under suspicion. Both gave their testimonies as to the events that had transpired.

Request

Please contact the Guatemalan ambassador to Canada and include at least some of the following in your letter:

A personal reason for your letter
A request that the government of Guatemala bring together the CGN and the communities to find a just solution to the disputes;
A thorough, independent investigation of what has happened;
Legal punishment for those who are responsible;
The careful monitoring of the situation in coordination with security forces to insure the protection and respect of the rights of all persons in El Estor without discrimination.

2. Please send a copy of your letter to Peter Mackay, Minister of Foreign Affairs, along with a covering letter expressing your concern over the activities of Canadian mining companies working in poorer countries.

3. Send a copy of both to your own MP

Addresses

His Excellency Carlos Humberto Jiminez Licona, Ambassador
Embassy of the Republic of Guatemala
130 Albert St., Suite 1010,
Ottawa, ON, K1P 5G4
Tel. 613-233-7237 Fax 613-233-0135
email: embassy1@embaguate-canada.com

The Honorable Peter MacKay,
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 Sussex St.,
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0G2
Tel. 613-992-6022 Fax 613-992-2337
Email: Mackay.P@parl.gc.ca

(name of MP),
House of Commons,
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6

SKYE RESOURCES INC. Press Release

Guatemalan Police Move to End Land Occupation at Fenix

VANCOUVER, Jan. 8 /CNW/ - Skye Resources Inc. (”Skye”) (TSX:SKR) announced that the national police force of Guatemala today commenced enforcement of court ordered evictions to remove squatters who had been illegally occupying, for several months, land leased by Compania Guatemalteca de Niquel (CGN) for its Fenix project. CGN is majority owned by Skye. The operation is being carried out by a special unit of the national police that has been trained to avoid violence in such situations.

The action came after the First Instance Criminal Court of Guatemala, responsible for deciding land dispute issues such as this, ruled in early December, 2006, in favour of CGN regarding its petition to ratify its legal title to the land. Since then, the company has worked to find a peaceful resolution to the dispute.

“We’re disappointed that the organizers of the land invasions were not able to keep their commitment to have their people leave the land so we could engage in further dialogue,” said Ian Austin, Skye’s President and CEO. “However, we’re also thankful that the Guatemalan government has upheld the company’s rights to the land and we remain committed to working with community leaders to find solutions to this important issue.”

CGN management had met with the squatters’ leaders in December 2006, and had been assured by the occupiers that they would depart the illegally
occupied land so the company could discuss with stakeholders how CGN could address the squatters’ concerns. This meeting was held under the auspices of the Bishop of Izabal.

“Land rights are a challenging issue throughout the country, but we believe that the programs we already have in place and our continuing commitment to employ as many local people as possible, while we develop the Fenix project, will help us work positively with the community,” said Mr. Austin.

During 2006, CGN has supported work by the Government of Guatemala’s National Land Title Office, to define title and boundary issues for land
adjacent to CGN property. This work will help local communities step into a more certain future by helping to define their land rights.

Skye has maintained a strong community relations effort in the El Estor region for two years. As a result of recent events, Skye reaffirms it’s commitment to an open dialog with the local communities and to working with local stakeholders to seek solutions to outstanding issues. Through the Raxche Foundation, Skye has also reaffirmed it’s commitment to support the advancement of the regional health system. The Hospital T’zunum’ha, which was heavily damaged during violent incidents in November, will again be rehabilitated to provide medical care to local residents.

About Skye
Skye is an international mining company focused on becoming a new mid-tier nickel producer. The Company acquired the rights to its Guatemalan
lateritic nickel project (the Fenix Project) in December 2004 and in September 2006 received the results of a feasibility study for a ferro-nickel operation project at Fenix using proven conventional smelting technology.

http://www.skyeresources.com

If I haven’t heard back in a couple days I’ll put together a list of emails, and post it here.