The Italian businesswoman detained by the Guinean National Guard for alleged involvement in the arson attack on a heavy sand mine was transferred, along with other people, from Ingoré to Bissau, judicial sources told Lusa today.
According to these sources, the businesswoman and a group of 15 people were taken since Friday from the military barracks in the town of Ingoré, where they had been transferred after being detained by the National Guard in the seaside resort of Varela.
"The authorities want to know if the businesswoman had any involvement in the arson attack on the machinery of the Chinese company" that mines heavy sands in Varela, the same sources added.
The National Guard claims to have indications "of a meeting" that took place recently between the women of Varela in which, according to sources from the corporation, the Italian businesswoman, who owns a hotel in the town, participated.
The transfer order for the businesswoman and other detainees, most of them women, was given by the Guinean Minister of the Interior, Botche Candé, who visited the scene of the incident on Saturday, added sources from the National Guard.
The businesswoman and other detainees are being held at the Second Police Station in Bissau. At least two chiefs (traditional authorities) are also being held at the same location, one from Nhinquin and the other from a nearby village, the same sources said.
Sources contacted by Lusa in Varela, a Guinean town about 170 kilometres from Bissau, and close to the border with Senegal, say that the businesswoman "is someone who greatly supports the women of Varela" in their food production and small-scale trade activities.
On Friday, a group of women from Varela set fire to machinery belonging to the Chinese company GMG Mininig SARL in protest against the exploitation of heavy sands in the community of Nhinquin.
Since the beginning of the heavy sands mining in that community, in the mid-2000s, the population, particularly the women, have never accepted the project.
The population initially accused the Russian company Poto Sarl, which held the mining license, and now the Chinese company, of failing to fulfill promises of improvements for the community, namely the construction of a school, road, fountains and hospital.
The women have never accepted the exploration of the heavy sands mine in Nhinquin because, allegedly, it is located in a "sacred area" where they perform the village rituals.
Studies by the Guinean government indicate that there is a heavy sands mine in that village with a potential of 440 thousand tons of heavy sands, from which, after extraction, the equivalent of 119 thousand tons of minerals such as ilmenite, zircon and rutile can be used.
These minerals are used in the metallurgical and aeronautical industries, as well as in the nuclear industry.
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