Issue 00651

Feb 6 -12, 2011

issn 0856 - 9135

www.arushatimes.co.tz

Front Page 3

Land major source of human rights abuse

By Arusha Times Reporter

Issues related to farms, or land-based conflicts have been described to be major causes for breach of human rights in Arusha region.

According to Mr Shilinde Ngalula, legal officer-in-charge at the regional offices for the Legal and Human Rights Center the majority of the claims being handled at the LHRC in Arusha were mostly connected with land issues.

“The region is a highly favorite destination for foreign investors, whose influx into the area has of late been creating scramble for land between them and local residents,” said Mr Ngalula.

Land use or its allocation also happens to be another problem here; “Arusha’s rather limited space has to be stretched to cater for different and highly conflicting social and economic undertakings such as livestock grazing, crop cultivation, tourism, conservation, hunting and human settlement,” said the Legal Officer.

In 2010 alone more than 3586 clients presented their grievances at the Arusha office for the Legal and Human Rights Center among them 2173 males and 1413 women whose breach of human rights complaints ranged from quarrels over land, marital problems, dishonored insurance claims and harassments at work places.

“There were 477 more cases last year compared to those recorded in 2009,” said the LHRC Regional legal officer adding that as time goes by, the Arusha Chapter which was established here about a decade ago, has been attracting more people for legal assistance and advise.

The LHRC has been assisting people who cannot afford to pay for legal services to access representations in court free of charge and in 2010 the center had managed to help more than 40 ordinary residents to win their cases.

“Those were the cases that the LHRC managed to get feedback of but many other people, after having had their problems solved simply disappear without trace,” explained Mr Ngalula.

Other than representing the poor and marginalized people in court, the LHRC also helped educate local residents on issues of good governance as well as providing civil education while also offering legal consultancy and advisory services and conducting conflict resolutions.

“We are now working hard to ensure that we take LHRC services as closer to the people as possible,” said the Center’s communications officer Ms Rose Mwalongo.

The LHRC whose main offices are based at Kijitonyama Dar-es-salaam was established in the country in 1995

Issue 00654

Feb 26 -March 4, 2011

issn 0856 - 9135

www.arushatimes.co.tz

Front Page 1

Edward Parokwa of PINGOS (left) expressing his concern over media coverage
of the Loliondo land crisis in a seminar in Arusha last week

Media blamed on Loliondo crisis
‘They dance to tune of sponsors’
By Arusha Times Correspondent
Mass media people in Arusha have come under fire for alleged biased reporting on the Loliondo land conflicts.
Human rights and environmental activists say some journalists were not objective in their coverage of the crisis pitting the local communities and investors.
"Journalists could be part of the problem. At times they are unethical. They are not supposed to be biased", lamented Nicodemus Ikonko, a reporter with Hirondele News Agency.
He said in recent months journalists visiting the troubled area did not behave as ''independent team of media people", but appeared to dance to the tune of their sponsors.
Edward Porokwa, the executive director of PINGOS, an umbrella body advocating for the rights of traditional pastoralists, said there was evidence that some reporters were compromised on their coverage.

He specifically pointed a finger against some private investors, who have set up businesses in Loliondo and the entire Ngorongoro district, for compromising the reporters.
The duo were speaking during a radio talk show organised by the Arusha-based MJ FM Radio and specifically convened to discuss resource conflicts in the area.
They said there was no evidence that a hunting firm from the Middle East which has been operating in Loliondo since the 1990s has brought tangible benefits to the local communities there.
They added although they were not against organisations competing with one another to sponsor journalists to Loliondo, those facilitated should always stick to the truth.
Journalists from Arusha and neighbouring regions and as far as Dar es Salaam have been to the remote Loliondo in recent years to investigate the source of crisis which have dragged for a long time.

Moses Killinga, a stringer with the BBC said since media reports were often
sensitive and could be construed as instigation in some quarters "what we
report must be true."
He added: "Media reports that are cooked to favour certain groups are very dangerous. We must always be truthful and objective in our reporting".
Hickloch Ogola, a coordinator of an advocacy programme on resource conflicts affecting local communities in Loliondo and other areas said a responsible media should agigate for the rights of people.
The one-year programme targets mainly the pastoralists, small scale miners as well as communities living around wildlife resources " and who are regarded as being destructive in the course of their efforts to earn livelihoods."
"We will investigate the nature of land use conflicts among private investors, indigenous people and their mining colleagues", he said at the official launching of the programme called YAWEZEKANA at an Arusha hotel.
For many years, Loliondo division in the vast Ngorongoro district has been a hotbed of conflicts pitting different players, including the local people, investors, conservation agencies and the government.
Only last week, civic leaders in the district called for the protected status in the area to be scrapped because of its marginal contribution to the socio-economic development of the local people.
The councillors also argued that game-controlled area (GCA) status for Loliondo was in collision with the village land legislation.
They further argued that having the entire Loliondo as a protected area meant only tourism-related activities would be promoted at the expense of traditional pastoralism.
The government on the other hand has often accused non-governmental organistions operating there for contributing to the problem by instigating people against the authorities.

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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

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Tanzania: Envoy's Fear On Babati Clashes

By Zephania Ubwani, 30 January 2012

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Arusha — Britain wants the Tanzanian government to act on land conflicts pitting villagers against British farmers in Babati District, Manyara Region.In an interview here yesterday, the British High Commissioner to Tanzania, Ms Diane Corner, said her government was aware of the long simmering conflict that has turned bloody in recent months. She said the standoff has reached the extent of scaring away investors from her country.
"A solution to the crisis must be found so that the investors' rights are protected and local people assured of security," she told The Citizen on Saturday at an Arusha hotel.
Ms Corner, who ended her two-day visit to British investors in Arusha as well as regional organisations based in the northern regions yesterday, said the Tanzanian government must protect them.
She said investors from her country had invested heavily in commercial farming in the Kiru Valley near Babati, the Manyara regional headquarters, but were disturbed by conflicts over land. She explained that although she was agitating for the protection of estate owners and their property, dialogue was the best solution to the crisis because it would ensure that all parties in the conflict zone lived in harmony.
The envoy said her mission has been in touch with relevant government bodies, including ministries of Home Affairs as well as Foreign Affairs and International Relations. It had also contacted regional and district officials who had promised to cooperate on the matter, she said.
She reiterated that the solution should centre on dialogue between commercial farmers and surrounding communities whose demands for land have increased because of the rising human and livestock population. Conflicts over land for farming and grazing between local people and large-scale farmers in Kiru Valley worsened from early last year, leading to violent clashes in which scores of people lost their lives.
In one incident, villagers torched sugar estates and stormed premises of their owners, burned their houses, vehicles, farm machinery and other property, thus worsening the tensions.
Most of the torching was directed at farms owned by Babati Rural MP Viraljil Jituson as well as Messrs Suresh Odedra and Mukesh Ogan. The latter two are among several farmers who say they are British citizens.
Toward the middle of the year, some investors threatened to withdraw investments from the area if they were not assured of protection by the government from the 'hostile' local people and compensation for their razed down properties.
According to the farmers, the bone of contention has been traditional livestock herders who often fed their animals on the farms and threatened to attack their owners when told to stop the habit.
For their part, residents of the area have often attributed the problem to the shortage of grazing areas and land to till. They say the row could end once the farmers, mostly of Asian origin, vacate the area.
At one time one of the estate owners, Mr Babu Hatia, warned that some investors might decide to abandon commercial farming in Kiru if their security and that of their properties was not guaranteed.
Later, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda dispatched a team cabinet ministers to Babati District to seek ways to end the conflict. Several people were then arrested and arraigned in court for arson and associated violence.
Kiru valley, located between Babati and the southern shores of Lake Manyara, has been famous for settler farming since the colonial days.
After independence, and the Arusha Declaration much later, many of the settlers left the area fallow or sold their farms, many of which were taken over by the state or bought by farmers of Asian extraction.
Kiru commercial farmers are among British investors currently operating in and around Arusha. According to the High Commissioner, currently there are between 1,500 and 2,000 British firms in Tanzania's northern regions.

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Tanzania: Kiru Villagers Explain Land Crisis Cause

19 February 2011

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Villagers in Kiru valley in Babati district, where recent clashes with commercial farmers took place, have spoken about the long simmering crisis.
They said, during a meeting with senior police officials from Dar es Salaam, that they should be regularly involved in allocation of farms to the investors.
They claimed the incessant conflicts in the area between them and the commercial farmers was partly due to poor communication between the two parties.
Three weeks ago, the conflict turned violent when villagers reportedly burned down sugar cane estates and destroyed properties belonging to the farmers.
A contingent of anti-riot police had to be deployed to the area to restore order but the hunt for the alleged perpetrators proved futile as some villagers deserted the area.
Residents of the Kiru, the home of commercial farmers since the colonial days, gave their side of the crisis when they spoke to police officials sent purposely to investigate the crisis last week.
They alleged that in many cases they were not notified or involved during the allocation of large tracks of land to large scale farmers, some from outside the country.
A delegation of police team from Dar es Salaam was led by Mr. James Kasusura, an assistant to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Moris Okinda, a coordinator of the Community Police Unit.
They spent much of the time visiting the torched farms and farm houses as well as meeting agricultural investors and ordinary wananchi living in the area.
During the latest conflict, which reached peak on January 26th, tractors and vehicles belonging to the commercial farmers, were also burned down by the villagers.
The torched farms included one belonging to the Babati Rural MP Mr.Virajen Jituson, one of the prominent commercial farmers in the area who has been elected into the House last October.
A villager who identified himself as Michael Gilau told the police team at times their areas are "sold" to the investors without them being informed.
Another, Mr. Israel Paulo said many villagers were fully aware that most of the agricultural investors in Kiru valley had title deeds dating to more than 60 years ago.
However, he said it was an open secret that some of the farms had at different times in the last couple of years been sub-divided among the landless villagers living there.
He also cited another farmer he identified as Amani Shivji who, some time ago, surrendered back to the government his land for redistribution to the local people.
He said he doubted if the government had subdivided the farm to the peasants, adding that the ordinary villagers should not always be blamed for the long standing land crisis.
Mr. Kasusura implored the villagers not to take law into their hands and to cooperate with the government as well as the commercial farmers to ensure the conflict does not degenerate into violence.

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Tagged: East Africa, Land and Rural Issues, Tanzania

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Sun 29 Apr 9:48PM

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RESOLVE LAND CONFLICTS

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Monday, 21 May 2012 21:17

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Last Sunday’s violent clashes that pit herdsmen against peasants at Ikwiriri in Coast Region’s Rufiji District, which led to one death, are the latest in a worrisome pattern.

The casualty was a peasant who was lynched by enraged herdsmen, after he had driven away cattle that had been let loose to graze on his farm. Other ugly by-products of the clashes were burnt houses, looted property and disruption of traffic flow on the highway linking southern regions and Dar es Salaam.
Deadlier clashes occurred in Kilosa, Morogoro two years ago, in which 38 people were killed and properties were destroyed – again, featuring peasants and herdsmen.

Land disputes are the source of the recurrent conflicts, and are triggered by shortage of the vital natural resource for livelihood and survival. Creating an environment that would ensure peaceful co-existence between the two communities is challenge that political leaders and administrators must tackle and lay to rest once and for all.

Equitable allocation of land, as well as access to water is central to attainment of that eventuality, others being civic and rudimentary legal awareness campaigns in the conflict-prone areas where jungle law and survival of the fittest theatrics reign supreme.
But above all, all, stakeholders should and must respect the law, and whose application should not be selective.

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Sun 29 Apr 9:51PM

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Kilindi district council to probe illegal land acquisitions

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Sunday, 08 April 2012 08:36

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By George Sembony
Kilindi. The Kilindi District Council has vowed to conduct thorough investigations into dubious land acquisitions in the district and would claim back all the land that would deem as having been acquired illegally.
The Council chairman (Social Services Committee), Mr Idrisa Mgaza, said this during a public debate on the state of relationship between elected leaders and the people organised by the Tanga Civil Societies Coalition (TASCO) in the district, recently.
Mr Mgaza was reacting to allegations made by several speakers that there was unilateral sale of land by village government officials.
Mr Mgaza, who is also the District Parents’ chairman, said the authority has taken stock of the land situation and realized that hectares of land had fallen in the hands of outsiders, who indulged in land speculation.
“We’ll retake all the land which was not acquired through legal procedures. The land would then be put under village governments for proper redistribution to villagers,” said Mr Mgaza.
Presenting the main topic to the debate, the chief facilitator, Mr Jonathan Mgongoro, said that the land issue was a matter to be decided upon during village meetings, which however faced the challenge of participation.
He argued that all villagers had the duty of attending village assemblies, saying it was not enough to launch complaints outside the meetings.
One villager, Mr Said Lugendo, said there was no need to pay village leaders allowances as they had already taken bribes.
Another, Mr Issa Jambia, who is from Kwadudu village said that their land was sold and leaders did not explain well what happened.
During the meeting, the Handeni Member of Parliament, Dr Abdallah Kigoda, pointed an accusing finger to village leaders saying they were the main causes of illegal land distribution practices, saying lack of observation of legal procedures caused many problems and disputes on land

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LAND-GRABBING IN TANZANIA TAKES HOLD!

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LAND-GRABBING IN TANZANIA TAKES HOLD!

Written by TIMES REPORTER

Thursday, 08 December 2011 12:44

Going dirt cheap for bio-investors, costly for locals

TIMES REPORTER

WITH the spectre of land-grabbing looming larger and larger across Africa and elsewhere in the developing world, the menace is already full of oddities. In Tanzania, for instance, while ordinary folk pay between Tsh250,000 and Tsh2.5 million to lease one acre of land for a year, investors in so-called 'biofuel' projects can lease the same acre for a measly Tsh700, Business Times has learned!

Lease land in both rural and urban Tanzania is available for up up 99 years.

The secretary-general of ActionAid, Marco de Ponte, revealed this during an on-line interview with Business Times on land grabbing and its consequences on food security.

Land-grabbing is a result of exclusive policies among African Governments, including Tanzania's, whereby investors are given priority in accessing land, while locals have to struggle on their own to get land!

With foreign companies buying vast tracts of land at dirt-cheap prices, the number of displaced people is already increasing alarmingly. Locals are all kicked out from their fertile land and end up living on infertile land, de Ponte laments.

“Most of the poor people are at risk of losing the land that they have farmed and lived on for generations to make way for biofuel crops production, much of which would be shipped back to Europe,” de Ponte said.

For example, the Iowa-based investor Bruce Rastetter and fellow investors in the industrial-agricultural corporation Agrisol Energy have their sights on 800,000 acres (325,000 hectares) of land in Tanzania that is already home to 162,000 people!

The World Bank estimates that demand for biofuel feed-stocks is a major factor for world agriculture, with land conversion for biofuels by 2030 estimated to range between 18-and-44 million hectares (ha).

Global biofuel consumption is estimated to jump from about 70 billion litres in 2008 to 250 billion litres in 2020.

For the EU, the increase will be steeper: from 13 billion to about 55 billion litres. To meet the EU's ten per cent target alone, the total land area directly required to grow industrial biofuels in developing countries could reach 17.5 million hectares, well over half the size of Italy!

Kees Burger, an associate professor at Wageningen University, believes that it is the responsibility of the governments of the (recipient) countries to set clear rules for investments.

At the same time, he says, the global community can set standards for bio-fuel production that takes into account the manner in which land was acquired.

Activist Anuradha Mittal from the US-based Oakland Institute has been waging letter-writing and media campaigns against the project. She says if the Agrisol Energy deal goes ahead, 160,000 people will be displaced!

She also says there will be environmental degradation, and very few, if any benefits, for the local population.

"We will keep the pressure up. Their lies of boosting food security and creating jobs are totally unacceptable because there is no evidence to suggest that it would work for the people of Tanzania or for the people who have been displaced from their land," Mittal said.
A senior research fellow with the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, Deborah Brautigam, is urging the Tanzania Government to take its time in making a decision on the proposed 99-year lease.

"I would say I am more on the side of it as an opportunity that should be handled with extreme care. I am not sure that it is being handled with appropriate care. These are areas that were not empty; there are people that are having to be moved, and so on. There has not been, as far as I know, a very clear analysis of the social and environmental impact. So, I think the Government may be moving a little bit quickly and perhaps precipitously," she said.

Brautigam said that, in the post-colonial era, governments tried but failed to establish successful large-scale government farms. She says after subsequent years of having mainly small scale farms with low productivity, there is now a push for export-driven commercialized agriculture.

Brautigam says Tanzanians should be much more informed about these issues, as well as US officials, since Agrisol Energy is an American company.

"What is it that we are doing? Will this be harmful for food security in Tanzania? Have all of the possible ramifications of this kind of investment been addressed? We are a country that cares about poverty. We are putting a lot of effort into assisting Tanzania to move out of poverty. Is this kind of project something that will help ? or is it, as many people fear, something that will hurt?" she soliloquized.

In recent weeks, opposition leaders in Tanzania have also been speaking out against the proposed lease. Meshack Opulukwa from the opposition Party for Democracy & Development (ChaDeMa) told the country's National Assembly that “increased food production is no justification for taking away land from villagers.

“The displacements would increase the likelihood of conflicts between farmers and pastoralists,” Opulukwa also said, adding that “Tanzania has no problem with food shortages but, rather, with infrastructure and moving food around.”

On its website, Agrisol Energy says it anticipates starting development of the acquired Tanzanian land in late 2011. Now, it seems that date will at least be pushed back.

Activists and opposition leaders sincerely hope the proposed lease is never finalized