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Stop the killing fields of Loliondo
Indigenous Rights for
Survival International
P.O. Box 13357
Dar Es Salaam.
02.01.2003
The President
The United Republic of Tanzania
P.O. Box 9120
Dar Es Salaam.
Ref: Stop the killing fields of Loliondo
I am a Tanzanian citizen, a strong believer in social justice. Under
the same spirit I am the Co-coordinator of an informal group called
Indigenous Rights for Survival International (IRSI). IRSI is a loose
network of young people with an interest in public policy issues in
Africa. We mainly discuss policy issues through emails
communications and ultimately write articles in the press. IRSI as
an entity takes no position on any of the discussed issues instead
it simply stimulates, steers, and co-ordinates discussions and
debates on public policy issues of members’ interest.
Mr. President, I have all along believed that you can stop the crime
against humanity being inflicted upon the people of Loliondo,
Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region by a no less authority than the
Government of Tanzania.
Mr. President, Loliondo Division is located in Maasai ancestral
lands in the northern part of Tanzania along the common border with
Kenya. It borders the Ngorongoro highlands to the south, Serengeti
National Park to the west, and the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya
to the north. The Loliondo Game Controlled Area (LCGA) encompasses
an estimated 4,000 sq km. There is no physical barrier separating
the LGCA from other protected areas. It is a continuous ecosystem.
LGCA was initially established in 1959 as a Game Reserve by the
British colonialists under the then Fauna Conservation Ordinance,
Section 302, a legal instrument the colonial authorities used to set
aside portions of land for wildlife conservation. The legal status
of the reserve was later changed to that of a Game Controlled Area
to allow for commercial Hunting, a status that defines LGCA today
and haunts its wildlife.
Mr. President, Loliondo forms an important part of the semi-annual
migratory route of millions of wildebeests and other ungulates
northward into the Maasai Mara Game Reserve and Amboseli National
Park in Kenya between April and June, and returning southward later
in the year. The survival of the Ngorongoro-Serengeti-Maasai Mara
ecosystem and the wildlife it supports is linked to the existence of
Loliondo and other surrounding communal Maasai lands in Tanzania and
Kenya. Similarly, the survival of the Maasai people is dependent
entirely upon the protection of their ancestral land for economic
viability and cultural reproduction. Land to the Maasai is the
foundation for their spirituality and the base for identity.
Mr. President, the people of Ngorongoro District in general and
Loliondo Division in particular have suffered for a long time
various established pains such as irrational grabbing of their
ancestral land for “development”, tourism (consumptive and
non-consumptive) and cultivation. While the people of Loliondo have
lost much of their ancestral land to cultivation, the Government is
evidently supporting private investors to further put Maasai
pastoralists of Loliondo at a very awkward corner.
In 1992, the administration of the former president Ali Hassan
Mwinyi granted the entire Loliondo Game Controlled Area (LGCA) as a
Hunting concession to the
Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd (OBC), a game-Hunting firm based in
the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Government issued a 10-year
Hunting permit, under
the controversial agreement, to the Brigadier Mohammed Abdulrahim
Al-Ali, believed to be a member of the royal family of the UAE, of
Abu Dhabi in the UAE who
owns (OBC). The grabbed land is a birthright land of thousands of
villagers of Arash, Soitsambu, Oloipiri, Ololosokwan, Loosoito and
Oloirien villages of
Loliondo.
Mr. President, a Parliamentary Committee was formed to probe the
Loliondo Gate saga. It revoked the dirty agreement. Strangely, a
similar agreement was
established.
In January 2000, OBC was granted another 5-year Hunting permit in
the said area. As usual, without the villagers’ consent. OBC
constructed an airstrip. The villagers have been witnessing live
animals being exported through the airstrip. OBC constructed
structures near water sources. Hearing of the new permit, the Maasai
sent a 13-men protest delegation to Dar Es Salaam in April 2000. The
intention was to sort out the matter with you Mr. President.
Unfortunately, they did not see you.
However, the delegation managed to hold a press conference at
MAELEZO, National Information Corporation Centre. The Maasai
contemplated a number of actions to be taken against both your
Government and the Arab in connection with the plunder of the
resources. The Maasai said that before a mass exodus of the Maasai
to Kenya the first thing was to eliminate wild animals. Thereafter,
the delegation retreated to Loliondo, as gravely frustrated as
before.
The general election was scheduled for 2000, so the saga had to be
explained away. The official statement was that power hungry
opposition politicians were pushing the elders and that all the
claims by the Maasai were “unfounded” and “baseless.” To its credit,
The Guardian went to Loliondo. It reported the following:
Maasai elders in Loliondo, Arusha Region, who recently declared a
land dispute against OBC Ltd, a foreign game-Hunting firm, have
accused some top Government
officials of corrupt practices, saying the conflict is not
political. The Arusha Regional Commissioner, Daniel ole Njoolay,
recently described the simmering
land dispute between the Maasai pastoralists and OBC, as a political
issue.
Francis Shomet [the former Chairman for Ngorongoro District Council]
claimed that Njoolay had misled Tanzanians to believe that the
allegations recently raised by Maasai elders were unfounded and
baseless. Fidelis Kashe, Ngorongoro District Council Chairman
maintained, “We cannot stand idle to see our land being taken away
by Arabs. We will kill all the animals in the area as these are the
ones attracting the Arabs into our land” (The Guardian May 30,
2000).
The next morning Government officials were reported to have said the
following:
The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Zakia Meghji,
yesterday assured Ngorongoro residents that no land has been sold or
grabbed by Arabs in Loliondo. Flanked by the Arusha Regional
Commissioner, Daniel ole Njoolay and the Director of Wildlife,
Emanuel Severre, Meghji commented, “There is no clause on the sale
of land in the contract signed between OBC and the six villages of
Ololosokwan, Arash, Maaloni, Oloirien, Oloipiri and Soitsambu.”
However an inquiry conducted by The Guardian in Loliondo last week
established that the Maasai elders were not involved in the re-lease
of the Hunting block to the company. According to Megji, her probe
established that the building has been constructed about 400 metres
from the water source, 200 metres more than the distance recommended
by law. But The Guardian investigation shows that the structures are
less than 50 metres from a spring. And another spring has dried
up (The Guardian May 31, 2000).
Mr. President, underline two points. First, the Minister said the
building has been constructed 400 metres from the water source.
Second, “The Guardian investigation shows that the structures are
less than 50 metres from a spring.” Now unless one’s mathematics
teacher at school was daft, there is a huge different between 50 and
400! When did 50 metric metres turn to mean 400 metric metres? Can
it be claimed that the Maasai were party to this so-called
agreement? I am at a loss why this-well known-Minister has not been
made to face the full force of the law.
In the proposal, Brigadier Al Ali outlined the benefits of his
operations in Loliondo to the Government, local communities, and
wildlife conservation in the Serengeti-Maasai Mara-Ngorongoro
ecosystem. Among its important objectives were:
• To conserve an area contiguous to the Serengeti National Park,
which is essential to the long-term survival of the ecosystem and
its migration.
• To develop a new role and image for the Arab world as regards
wildlife conservation, management, and human development.
• To improve locals’ revenue, development facilities, and create
employment.
• To generate revenues for the Central and District Governments.
The OBC now stands accused of self-contradiction and violation of
legal and moral obligations in virtually all the above areas,
resulting instead in
environmental destruction; unfulfilled promises and exploitation of
the local communities; and direct undermining of the stability of
the region’s wildlife
and natural habitats.
It has become evident that OBC had a long-term agenda for exploiting
the high concentration of wildlife in Loliondo. Its Hunting
operations are guaranteed by
the continuous flow of wildlife from the Serengeti, Ngorongoro,
Maasai Mara, and other areas. According to the International Union
for Conservation of
Nature, OBC "was taking advantage of migratory patterns of wildlife
coming out of Serengeti."
Mr. President, be informed that the villages in and adjacent to
protected areas in Tanzania have no Government-supported
infrastructures. Take Ngorongoro
District for instance. There is no Government hospital in Ngorongoro.
It may take a week to travel from Arusha to Loliondo, just less than
400 km, depending
on weather, for there is no road. There is no even a single
Government advanced level secondary education school in six (repeat
six) Districts in the Greater
Serengeti Region. This situation brings to question the legitimacy
of wildlife conservation vis-à-vis the right of rural people to lead
a decent life given
nature endowment in their localities.
Mr. President, the Maasai of Loliondo have for a long time accused
OBC of grave human rights abuses. They have described acts of
intimidation, harassment,
arbitrary arrest and detention, and even torture by OBC staff,
Tanzanian police and military in the name of OBC; brazen violations
of grazing and land
rights; and wanton environmental destruction and imminent
extermination of wildlife. They have seen leaders who once opposed
OBC’s practices corrupted and
bought-off.
The OBC operates like a separate arm of the Government. Many people
in Loliondo believe that OBC is even more powerful than the
Government. The Maa word for
"the Arab", Olarrabui, is often used to refer Brigadier Al Ali, and
by extension OBC. The word Olarrabui has become synonymous with
power, authority,
brutality, fear, and entities larger than life.
Mr. President, you do not need to be a rocket scientist to
comprehend that this is the clearest case of abuse of office. It is
suggested, for those willing
to avert disaster, the Tanzania Government included, that immediate
steps be taken to put to an end the violation of fundamental human
rights in Ngorongoro.
As to lands lost in Loliondo, the Government is advised to return
this to its owners. Land should not be grabbed senselessly. The
Government, should at once,
re-look into the whole matter.
Regards,
Navaya ole Ndaskoi.
CC
- The International Court of Justice
- The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights
- The United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations
- Human Rights Groups around the World
- Faculty of Law of the University of Dar Es Salaam
- Local and International Conservation Agencies
- Ministry of Tourism and Natural Resources
- The Attorney General
- The Chief Justice
- The Speaker of the United Republic of Tanzania Parliament
- The Press, print and electronic
- Political parties in Tanzania
- Tanganyika Law Society
- Other interested parties.
Navaya ole Ndaskoi
see also Extract 3734
The Maasai protest delegation holding a press conference in Dar Es
Salaam in 2000: http://www.undp.org/rbas/ahdr
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others say about UAE PRISON.com
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