Loliondo Residents Criticise Govt
The Citizen
2009-09-10
By Florence Mugarula
Three children have gone missing, while 16 youths are in prison following a conflict over land between Loliondo residents and hunting company, Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC), it has been alleged.
Participants of a gender festival were told yesterday in Dare es Salaam that there was an operation going on in Loliondo to evict villagers .
Some 50 representatives from the affected villages in Ngorongoro district claimed that OBC had teamed up with the police and district officials to conduct the operation, which they termed illegal.
They wondered whether top government leaders were aware of what was happening or not.
"The government has successfully executed its operation, they have torched out houses so that OBC can hunt without any interference... are President (Jakaya) Kikwete's children sleeping outside like ours?" queried Kooya Timan, one of the 50 Maasai herdesmen who represented their colleagues at the festival.
"Are we Tanzanians or refugees?" she asked noting that during the operation, the government did not care about them. "We feel that it was in the investor's interests that the government reacted."
Another representative, Ms Pirias Maingo, insisted that the Maasai community around Loliondo were not treated humanely by their government.
Ms Maingo said that there were several cases of violations in the area but the residents were helpless since the government had turned against them.
She added that four women have suffered miscarriage due to stress, while one woman was raped by a police officer and that no legal actions had been taken against the culprits.
She claimed there were many problems facing Loliondo residents including hunger and poverty but instead of being helped, they were beeing mistreated and moved from their land.
"We are facing many problems in our own land, our children are disappearing, the women are being raped and the government is silent, we need to be told if we are Tanzanians or not," she insisted.
Moreover, the Maasai woman asked President Kikwete to visit the area if he 'really feels about his people'.
"We want to see President Kikwete, we want to ask him if his wife and children are also experiencing what our children are going through, we need him to witness the reality on the ground," said Ms Maingo.
Reports from Loliondo further say that members of the dreaded Field Force Unit were involved in the operation to evict the villagers from their homes.
It was reported that houses were torched, animals killed as the authorities tried to clear the land for the hunting company.
Ms Maingo said that her community was facing hunger as they were without food and livestock.
But authorities in Ngorongoro district and those from OBC maintain that the evictions were carried out humanely to protect water sources.
Article at: http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/newe.php?id=14982
