from ALLOYCE KIMBUNGA in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
Tanzania Bureau
DAR-ES-SALAAM, (CAJ News) – PRIVATE businesses stand accused of complicity in the forced evictions of Maasai communities by authorities in Tanzania.
The Maasai indigenous people have been forced off their ancestral lands in Loliondo, north of the east African country.
Amnesty International alleges that since 2009, private businesses have been complicit in the forced evictions.
The allegations are carried in a report titled, “Business as usual in bloodied land? The role of businesses in forced evictions in Loliondo, Tanzania”.
The report details how Ortello Business Corporation (OBC), linked to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and a member of the ruling royal family, has participated in forcibly evicting Maasai communities by, among other things, accompanying Tanzanian security forces and allowing the authorities to set up camps on OBC property during all forced evictions.
Other tourism companies, including the Taasa Lodge, are also operating in the area where Maasai people have been forcibly evicted.
“Since 2009, the Tanzanian authorities have resorted to ill-treatment, excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests and detentions to forcibly evict the Maasai while leasing their land to private companies,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.
“It is particularly disturbing that they have carried out these evictions under the pretext of ‘conservation’, while in reality, they have allowed OBC to do improper or illegal trophy hunting activities, in clear violation of Tanzania’s Wildlife Conservation laws,” Chagutah said.
Amnesty International has urged Tanzanian authorities to conduct a prompt, impartial, independent, effective and transparent investigation into corporate complicity in the forced evictions. Suspected perpetrators of these violations must be brought to justice in fair trials, it said.
“Authorities should also investigate reported wildlife crimes committed by trophy hunting businesses in the region,” Chagutah said.
– CAJ News