ngoshwe
JF-Expert Member
- Mar 31, 2009
- 4,131
- 931
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif][FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]fyi: note the following messages from various sources and...i don't what anymore...: [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif][FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ----[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]am writing to inform you that the loliondo natural resource conflict is taking different shapes; forced eviction is still fresh in your memories where thousands of pastoralists were left homeless, foods were destroyed, people were beaten, women raped, one 11 year old girl got lost and above everything pastoralist were denied the access to the natural resources including their grazing lands. This was followed by the endless missions( human right commission of tanzania, tcra, govt 2 missions, femact fact finding mission, eu and the most recent was the parliamentary natural resources and environment committee , just to mention a few. All these did not provide the solution and worse still most of their reports never went to the public, only femact had their report to the public. Even the most waited parliamentary committee report never came about despite promises made to the public. The conflict is now advancing, the govt at the regional level got funding from obc of course this is since july last year to undertake a land use plan for the villages that are in conflict with obc. Its been difficult for the govt to approach the villages on this ideas, though brilliant. The govt is getting into a vulnerable position to tell the villages that their land will be surveyed and part of it will permanently be given to obc. So there has been a small pull and push at the district level and on 19th march, 2010 the govt decided to convene an extra- ordinary council meeting to sell the idea to the councilors. Unfortunately, the councilors went along with the idea on a good faith. They thought the said land use land was meant for the conflict resolution and ensuring village land security. This is not the case. After a week the former district commissioner mr jowika kasunga went for an exclusive interview with the african newspaper (attached) where he complained about the intervention by ngos, development partners interference, and last concluded his interview by saying the govt have deployed a team of five to wasso in loliondo who are part of the crew to undertake the land use plan. This contradicts not only the land use plan act of 2007, that emphasizes effective participation of all the groups but also disempower the land use commission which is mandated to coordinate the land use planning in the country. [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]Today women from 12 villagers about 3000 came for a demonstration asking for the parliamentary report, imposed land use plan that is being planned, and lastly wanted to return the ccm membership cards to ccm as its seen to be the source of all these problems. This is how the story goes; women gathered next to loliondo air strip feact group will recall where they were stopped last time when they were in loliondo by the police. Dc and his group went for women but fortunately, women were gathering waiting for others who have to foot for about 40-60 km to make it to loliondo.the dc didn't see them they were opposite the air strip and went to olopiri village next to obc camp. He found 370 women who were coming to joint the rest close to the air strip. He had to block them from further moving and had a meeting with them for about 4 hours. At 4pm the dc started requesting for vehicles to ferry the women back. One woman said, they were told if they don't get into vehicle the dc will order the police to beat them. Another group of 60 came to the airstrip from a different village and found police. They were taken to loliondo police station interrogated for 2 hours and up to 7.30 pm they were still in the police station. The larger group; they are 965 will have to spent a night in the bush with young children and will come to loliondo tomorow, that is on 8th. So the stand of the women remained the same despite interference by the police and the dc.[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]Am calling up on the human rights activists to assist the women and also lets make sure that the village land will not be given to arabs.[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ----[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]apparently hundreds of women marched on loliondo to hand in ccm membership cards demanding that action be taken on the evictions of last year and the continuing efforts to demarcate the land in a way that will limit the pastoralist land access. Of course there have been arrests and some blocked from getting to loliondo[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ----[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]i am writing from the small town of loliondo in northern tanzania. The british chose these cool, wet, windy hills for their hq in maasailand. Avenues of trees lining the roads, and purple-flowering jacarandas around the government offices of what is now ngorongoro district, are a testimony to their time here.[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]it is the wednesday after easter. Watchmen pull their blankets the red maasai shuka - around their shoulders. The morning is chill. But politically loliondo could not be hotter. In the past, the maasai were renowned for their warrior force, the morans. The age-sets still open and close to new spear-carriers. But today the formidable army of the maasai is their women. After centuries of subjugation by their menfolk and by government, they have discovered themselves, building strong village groups numbering thousands of members. They are planning to march on loliondo tomorrow, 8 april, to show their displeasure with governments which have gradually stolen their land to increase state revenues from hunting and tourism. [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]the women have come together from village to village to make plans to travel into loliondo to hand back their ccm cards renouncing their membership of chama cha mapinduzi, the party which has ruled the country continuously since 1977. They are protesting the july 2009 evictions and burning of homesteads in loliondo game controlled area - the north-western division of the district - and government plans to redraw the boundaries of village land and so exclude maasai livestock from their traditional pastures. [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]in many countries, this symbolic surrender of party cards would seem a modest protest. But in tanzania in an election year, it is seismic. The ruling party is not accustomed to being challenged. Word of the women's plans leaked out on easter monday (5 april) after large meetings were held in the villages. By evening mobile phone networks in loliondo town were jammed with calls, as the district commissioner (dc) elias wawa lali came under pressure from arusha and dar es salaam to act, and local civil society organisations (cso) came under pressure to confess to supporting the women. The mp saningo kaika telele has traveled back from arusha, fearing his support will collapse ahead of party and national elections. The regional chair of ccm and attendant security officers have also arrived. [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]the authorities' knee-jerk reaction is to hide, rather than discuss, the problem. This is embedded in ccm's genes, whether at national or local level. It seems akin to treason to question the party's authority, and tanzanian democracy sometimes seems a facade maintained only for the international community. In town the witch-hunt for perpetrators began yesterday. Civil society organisations are accused of fomenting the protest, and threatened with closure of their programmes. The authorities are so little in touch with life in the villages that it is beyond their imaginings that women could spontaneously undertake such resistance. In a way they are right. The women have been empowered by more than a decade of support and training by organisations such as oxfam, acord, pastoralist women's council (pwc) and through its ereto programme - danida. But in fact the women are working alone. They have each contributed 300 shillings towards transport costs. They say it is men who have drawn up all past land agreements, and that now it is time women came to the forefront. Their leaders are fearless, articulate and determined.[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]there has been a frenzy of political and police activity to forestall the women. At 9pm last night, two police vehicles were sent to one of the nearer villages, ololosokwan, where they found more than 400 women assembled. The police declared the gathering illegal and warned the women that they would be fired on if they moved towards town. The mp held a midnight meeting with security officers and police in loliondo. Unintimidated, women have today moved by truck and by foot along village pathways to try to come together near wasso, 10 km from loliondo. [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]a group of about sixty were spotted by police and arrested in mid-afternoon at wasso airstrip, and brought to the police station in loliondo. They were questioned for several hours through an interpreter, since none of the police speaks maasai. They were repeatedly asked: 'who helped organise you?' the police also intercepted 370 women from ololosokwan in olipiri village, where they have been held all afternoon to listen to the strictures of the dc. This evening the dc called acord, lado, oxfam gb and other csos in a vain request for vehicles to take the women back to ololosokwan. Having eventually commandeered transport, he told the women that if they did not get into the vehicles, the police would beat them. The women are of course - being denied rights of association guaranteed under the tanzanian constitution. [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]today is karuma day, a holiday, and the women have decided to wait until tomorrow morning to bring their cards to the ccm office. Whether any will now make it seems uncertain. About 500 women are spending the night in the bush near wasso, some with young children. This is a measure of the women's determination. The authorities may succeed tomorrow in blocking them from the ccm office in loliondo, but they have done nothing to win back hearts and minds.[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---- [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]maasai women have already been active in defence of their land. In october 2009 a delegation made the two-day journey to state house in dar es salaam, where they camped for a day outside the gates demanding in vain to 'meet the president we elected', jakaya kikwete. Several of their leaders, including kooya timan from ololosokwan, traveled to gambia in 2009 to attend the 46th african and human and people's rights session. (others were prevented from boarding their flight from dar es salaam.) [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]the roots of this anger stretch back into colonial times. Maasai communities were moved from the kenyan rift valley by the british early last century, then from the serengeti in the 1950s to make way for the national park, and in 1974 from ngorongoro crater despite the promise that it was theirs 'in perpetuity'. The current crisis has erupted from a confusion in rights and ownership stemming from the contradictions of village land acts and the wildlife conservation act of 1974. Under the act, the lands of all 19 villages in loliondo division were also designated a game controlled area (gca). [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]in 1992 president mwinyi's government conceded the whole of this game controlled area almost 5000 sq km - to a member of the emirati ruling family, brigadia mohamed abdulrahim al-ali of otterlo business corporation (obc). Obc's purpose is game-hunting. It has gradually asserted its control over a vast tract of land within the gca belonging to eight villages, until in july 2009, police of the tanzanian field force unit burnt down 305 homes making about 3000 people homeless. People were beaten, one woman raped and one child was lost and is presumed dead. One man was shot in the face and has lost an eye.[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]the original agreement between the authorities and obc states that 'the brigadia will allow villagers to continue grazing livestock in the area under contract providing they do not harm the wildlife.... ' ('brigadia atawaruhusu wanavijiji kunendelea kulisha mifugo yao katika eneo la mkataba mradi tu wasifanye uhalifu wa aina yoyote.') this was paid no heed during the recent drought, when herders were prevented from taking their starving livestock onto what had been the community's dry season grazing reserve.[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]it cannot be disputed that some villages have drawn benefits from obc, in the form of annual payments. Historically those purporting to be maasai leaders have too readily signed away the rights of their communities. Even with obc, communities failed to perceive the threat to their livelihoods, and to join together to face it. Until 2007, the villages whose land obc occupied were each to be paid 3mn shillings - though this was processed by the district council and sometimes remained there. Recently payments rose to 25mn sh pa - and in the case of one village, soit sambu, 50mn shillings. As a pr initiative, cheques were released to 9 villages on 15 august 2009 at the dc's office with media in attendance. Ololosokwan and maaloni were included, even though they had not signed any agreement with obc. The obc contract came to an end in december 2009. Though it has not been renewed, jets from dubai continue to fly into obc's airstrip. [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]recognising its mistake in rousing the media with forcible evictions, the authorities have more recently resorted to arresting and charging 'encroachers' under the 2004 environmental management act to protect wealthy arab hunters shooting wildlife. the irony is not lost on the maasai who are in their present plight because they eschewed hunting and lived alongside the plains wildlife. They are the conservators. Two worlds are in collision in ngorongoro, an ancient herding community now pressing for the education of their children and the development of their communities, and the obscenely rich who look for new playthings. A tanzanian governnment susceptible to financial incentives holds the ring. [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]not far from the obc 'park', a further 12,760 acres known as 'sukenya' has been earmarked for a luxury hotel to be built by massachusetts- based thomson safaris. During the last drought in 2009, villages around sukenya and obc were unable to access the grasslands of sukenya and obc, and lost 70 per cent of their cattle. 'that land is the greenest land, where there is grass and water,' olmwalmui from ololosokwan village told me. 'but the animals could not go there. They just died, died.' [/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]the wildlife act of 2009 is close to implementation and sets a framework for demarcation of village lands and the game controlled area. But a game controlled area can only be formally established on land removed from the villages. And this land, like serengeti, and like the land now defended by obc and thomson safaris, would not be open to maasai livestock. So the maasai are threatened with a final expulsion that could leave them in village centres which would become little more than displaced camps.[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]political efforts to address these wrongs are being thwarted by the lack of accountability and of genuinely democratic institutions in tanzania. At least ten delegations have come to loliondo to find the facts and report. The most significant of these was the parliamentary committee led by the speaker, samuel sitta. Their report was to be tabled in parliament on 6 february , and civil society organisations supported eighteen leaders from the villages to attend. But the ccm caucus met the day before and blocked the tabling of the report. Civil society players now feel that the political process has failed. Their legal efforts also received a setback on 30 march. A case against the dc's enforcement of evictions was dismissed in the district court in loliondo, on instruction from the director of criminal investigations who said the court did not have a mandate to hear the case. This will now be appealed to the high court. Another constitutional case challenging the evictions has already been lodged in the high court.[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]the government's support for obc has created an unusual alliance of opposing interests. The myriad tour operators working out of arusha stand to lose business. Permanent camps operating in the villages, such as klein's camp in ololosokwan, are threatened: Recently a tourist group from klein's were watching a lion, only to see it shot by guests of obc. The arch-conservators of the frankfurt zoologocal society, which has in the past supported evictions from the ngorongoro highlands, is also firmly in the opposition camp. It seems possible that the tanzanian authorities could kill the goose that lays the golden egg if they continue to grasp at every opportunity to increase their revenues from the northern plains. Maasailand without the maasai would be a diminished attraction. The hunting of game does not sit happily alongside the ideals of ecotourism. Plans by kempinski to establish a new luxury hotel within the crater rim at ngorongoro have attracted criticism from unesco.[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]perhaps the best hope of the communities in ngorongoro is a continued political campaign backed by continued pressure from the international community. Eu and us delegations in dar es salaam, led by the danes and swedes, have visited loliondo several times since the evictions have condemned government policy. But will they be prepared to sacrifice their relationship with the tanzanian government, however intransigent and unwholesome, for the sake of one small beleaguered community?[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ----[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]quote[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]in fact, use the information in whatever way you can. We are waiting to see[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]if women get through in the next hour or so. They are still outside town,[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]and even those driven back to ololosokwan by the dc yesterday have walked[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]again to town. Sadly i can't show my face outside right now, as i am also[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]discussed by the security committee. The journalists who were paid per diems[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]to come from arusha yesterday morning cannot be contacted, and we fear they[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]may have been bought off. It is remarkably oppressive - to stop some women[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]making a political gesture. The paranoid state.[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]I cannot let the identity of the author be known, as she fears for her[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]safety. However she trusts that i can get this information out and i have[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]also interviewed a couple of the maasai women myself (see attached land grab[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]article which will be published by oxfam later this year- i can send you a[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]larger article on land grab if you are interested that i wrote last month[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]but did not publish).[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]End quote[/FONT]
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ----
[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman, new york, times, serif]naituma kama nilivyopokea kutoka chanzo:
[/FONT]
