Uganda
may eject Oxfam over land grab claims
Publish Date: May 10, 2012
Uganda
has threatened to kick out Oxfam after the British charity accused the
government of complicity in violent land grabs for commercial gains, according
to the interior ministry.
The ministry has told Oxfam and the Uganda Land Alliance, they will lose their operating licenses if they do not retract and apologise for accusations that more than 20 000 people were evicted to make way for an international forestry company.
“(This) has ... generated unnecessary malicious attacks against the person of the president and brings the presidency into disrepute in a manner that is inconsistent with national laws,” the ministry's National NGO Board said in an undated report on an investigation into the organizations.
A retraction of the accusations, made in a September report, and apologies to the president and the ministry are preconditions for the two charities to keep their licences and the work permits of their staff, the board said.
Veteran President Yoweri Museveni's government says the people evicted had encroached on national forest reserves.
Oxfam confirmed receiving the ministry's report and its Uganda country director, Ayman Omer, said the charity would respond within an agreed time frame.
Deo Tumusiime, a spokesman for the Uganda Land Alliance, said it and Oxfam had been summoned by interior minister Hilary Onek on April 26 but that there were no grounds for an apology.
“We do not really see any need to apologise because there are issues on the ground that we think need urgent attention,” Tumusiime told Reuters on Wednesday. “People have lived on this land for quite some time and have now been chased away.”
Interior ministry officials were unavailable for comment.
Oxfam published in September a report entitled Land and Power which also detailed alleged land grabbing in Indonesia, Guatemala, Honduras and South Sudan.
The report said that 22 500 Ugandans living in the Kiboga and neighbouring Mubende districts had been thrown out of their homes to make way for UK-based New Forests Company (NFC).
Residents told Oxfam the security forces were deployed in 2010 to enforce the evictions, on occasion setting fire to homes and crops and in some cases beating and imprisoning people.
The Oxfam report said NFC had planted or harvested timber on 27,000 hectares (66 690 acres) in Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and Rwanda on what had been classified as “under-utilised” or “degraded” land, and deals in those countries had encompassed 90,000 hectares (222 230 acres). Reuters
Uganda threatens to expel Oxfam and NGOs over land-grabbing claims
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/may/10/uganda-oxfam-land-grabbing-claims?newsfeed=true
- John Vidal, environment editor
- guardian.co.uk,
In the clearest signal yet that allegations of government involvement in the allocation of land to large commercial enterprises are embarrassing President Yoweri Museveni and government elites, Oxfam and the Uganda Land Alliance (ULA) were called this week to the home affairs ministry and threatened with deregistration by the internal affairs minister Hilary Onek.
Criticism of the two NGOs centres on allegations made last September by Oxfam that more than 20,000 people had been evicted from a government-owned forest in Mubende and Kiboga districts to make way for a British forestry company. Residents told Oxfam that Ugandan security forces enforced the evictions, setting fire to homes and crops and in some cases beating and imprisoning people.
"[This] has … generated unnecessary malicious attacks against the person of the president and brings the presidency into disrepute in a manner that is inconsistent with national laws," the ministry's national NGO board said.
"We were asked to make a public apology to the people of Uganda and the president for harming his name, and [told] that if we don't we will be deregistered", said the ULA director Esther Obaikol.
"We do not see any need to apologise because there are issues on the ground that we think need urgent attention," said a spokesman for the ULA. "People have lived on this land for quite some time and have now been chased away."
Land issues are highly sensitive in Uganda, where tens of thousands of people have been evicted from farmland in the past 10 years to make way for international oil, biofuel, forestry, gold, sugar, coffee and gold mining companies.
An Oxfam spokesperson said: "Last September, Oxfam published a report which highlighted the concerns of communities affected by the operations of the New Forests Company in Mubende and Kiboga districts, Uganda. These cases are now in a mediation process facilitated by the office of the compliance adviser/ombudsman of the World Bank's international finance corporation.
"Oxfam is fully committed to this mediation process and we hope that it will deliver a successful resolution of the issues under dispute. Because the mediation process is under way, we cannot offer any comment about the disputes at this time."
Action Case Uganda - Mubende: Evictees struggle to get access to justice and land
Forcible eviction from their land of abode and labor exploitation due to a
coffee plantation in Naluwondwa-Madudu, Mubende
District, Uganda
Background
In August 2001, the government of Uganda
brutally evicted 392 peasant families (approximately 2041 persons) from their
land in Mubende District in central Uganda. The land was then given to
a German coffee company for the purpose of establishing a coffee plantation
under its local subsidiary, Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd.. While some of the
victims have found shelter on the neighbouring land and are conducting
temporary small-scale farming, others were employed by the plantation as casual
workers. The eviction has deeply jeopardized the livelihoods of the affected
families. After years of struggle, the legal action to reclaim their land and
properties is still being obstructed and delayed. The government, represented
by the attorney general, continues to impede the due course of the trial.
FIAN has been supporting the victims of the illegal eviction
from the beginning of their struggle in 2001 until now. FIAN has intervened
several times in this case and has accompanied the victims in their national
and international work. As a result of the first interventions, a better access
to clean water has been achieved and the position of the victims has been
strengthened in the legal action they have taken. Nevertheless, neither land
nor properties lost during the eviction have been returned to these peasant
families till today.
By evicting the peasant community without proper rehabilitation and compensation, Uganda violated their human right to feed themselves and related human rights. The legal basis of their displacement is questionable. Moreover, undue violence and destruction were used in the eviction.
The state of Uganda
should thus provide proper rehabilitation and compensation and ensure the right
to effective remedy for the peasants affected by the human rights violations
mentioned.
Coffee
investor accused of evicting 400 peasants
The complaint against NKG was filed by a German NGO, FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN), that faults NKG for violating the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines that govern the behaviour of multinational companies.
FIAN said that the complaint was filed on behalf of 400 small-scale farmers in Madudu sub-county, Mubende, who were allegedly, forced to vacate their land without adequate compensation. The land in question was subsequently leased to Kaweri by the government.The case was lodged on 15th June 2009 via the OECD contact at Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin.
Sandra Ratjen, FIAN’s Advocacy and International Policies Coordinator told The Observer that, “the complaint was a response to the lack of success-seeking legal remedies before national courts in Uganda, as well as to the unsuccessful attempt to dialogue and find [an] out-of-court agreement with the company.”
Illegal displacement
NKG acquired the 11.6 square miles of contested land from the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) on a 99-year lease, and the plantation was inaugurated by President Yoweri Museveni and Michael Neumann, Chairman of NKG, in August 2001.
However, advocacy group ActionAid International (Uganda), which works with the dispossessed farmers and first alerted FIAN to their plight, says that in the same month, over 2,000 people were forcibly evicted from the land and denied adequate compensation.
Evictions were allegedly, conducted by soldiers from a nearby army barracks led by Mubende’s then Resident District Commissioner. Residents from the villages of Keitemba, Luwunga, Kijunga and Kiryamakobe reportedly had their houses razed and property looted.
They lost their means of livelihood and are currently struggling to access adequate food, shelter, water, healthcare and education, FIAN said.
UIA rejection
“Neumann did not do anything wrong,” says Dr. Maggie Kigozi, Executive Director of Uganda Investment Authority. “The UIA bought that land from the landowner and the landowner had been the one to resettle the bona fide occupants, or squatters, or whatever you want to call them,” she said.
Kigozi admits that given the size of the land, and the conflicting claims over its earlier ownership, some people might feel they were poorly compensated, but the investment itself cannot be faulted.
“Neumann has invested in a large coffee plantation”, she said. “They produce high-end coffee, they have huge out-grower schemes. The township of Mubende, which used to be a miserable little town, is now booming, because so many people are now employed, either in the plantation, or they are benefiting from being out-growers.”
Still, many believe that the company’s actions have not translated into a fair deal for the aggrieved parties. “There were irregularities in [the] supposed compensation and relocation”, says Charles Businge, Country Director of ActionAid Uganda.
“There were failures to establish true facts regarding who were the occupants of the land before eviction. There were issues that led to forceful eviction by the army even before the notice period had elapsed. We think that if all these issues had been handled professionally, such a case would not have emerged.”
Compensation
According to Ratjen, “Only 2% of the evictees have been compensated and even in their case, compensation is not adequate following national and international standards.” FIAN explains that the OECD - which is itself committed to promoting sustainable economic growth and democratic processes in market economies - has guidelines that require multinational enterprises to act responsibly in host countries by respecting human rights.
Thus, it believes NKG should have ensured such rights were guaranteed before concluding its contract with the Uganda government. Peter Kayiira, an evicted Madudu resident, today heads ‘Stand up and fight for your Rights’, a loose coalition of the 400 dispossessed farmers on whose behalf FIAN has filed its complaint.
In 2002, the coalition, supported by FIAN and ActionAid, moved to sue both the Uganda Government and NKG. “According to the Constitution and the laws, the land is still ours”, Kayira explains.
“So in that case, the restitution of our former holding is inevitable. He says the group is suing for damages incurred by the evictees as their houses were razed and property looted, as well as punitive costs should the court find the treatment meted out to them to have been malicious, while also claiming legal costs.
They are however, still open to out-of-court settlements that will allow them to legally re-settle on two square miles of the contested land and provide suitable compensation for livelihoods lost.
Kaweri adamant
Jeremy Hulme, the Managing Director of Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd appeared unaware of the complaint filed with the OECD, telling The Observer it was a matter that could only be dealt with by NKG’s legal office. He said that the company’s actions and impact simply do not warrant the legal suits brought against it. “We are entirely the innocent party,” said Hulme.
“We paid for and took possession of an unencumbered piece of land, so surely, it is up to those that sold that land, to deliver such. We have no case, as far as we’re concerned, to answer.”
He added that Kaweri grows Robusta coffee over on 1,800 hectares, processes roughly 1,500 tons per year (much of it for export), and is the only substantial producer of ‘Uganda washed robusta’ in the country.
Moreover, it claims to employ some 250 permanent staff, and between 800 to 1,500 seasonal workers. Ratjen agrees the Uganda government must primarily address the case as it has a duty to protect its citizens under international law.
However, “This does not mean that the company has no responsibility towards the respect of human rights when it invests abroad. NKG cannot pretend that it could not appreciate the impact of the establishment of the plantation on the lives of the forcibly evicted people.
The eviction itself took place to enable the project of the company.” On its part, UIA is concerned, but not unduly worried by this latest controversy to embroil one of its most cherished foreign investors.
“The OECD will listen to both sides of the story”, Kigozi states. “They are not about to make decisions based on rumours.”
devapriyo_das@yahoo.co.in
Wednesday, 22 July 2009 22:32
Mubende-based
Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd. is embroiled in controversy after its parent
company, the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG) of Hamburg, Germany,
was accused of unlawfully evicting peasants from their land.
The complaint against NKG was filed by a German NGO, FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN), that faults NKG for violating the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines that govern the behaviour of multinational companies.
FIAN said that the complaint was filed on behalf of 400 small-scale farmers in Madudu sub-county, Mubende, who were allegedly, forced to vacate their land without adequate compensation. The land in question was subsequently leased to Kaweri by the government.The case was lodged on 15th June 2009 via the OECD contact at Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin.
Sandra Ratjen, FIAN’s Advocacy and International Policies Coordinator told The Observer that, “the complaint was a response to the lack of success-seeking legal remedies before national courts in Uganda, as well as to the unsuccessful attempt to dialogue and find [an] out-of-court agreement with the company.”
Illegal displacement
NKG acquired the 11.6 square miles of contested land from the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) on a 99-year lease, and the plantation was inaugurated by President Yoweri Museveni and Michael Neumann, Chairman of NKG, in August 2001.
However, advocacy group ActionAid International (Uganda), which works with the dispossessed farmers and first alerted FIAN to their plight, says that in the same month, over 2,000 people were forcibly evicted from the land and denied adequate compensation.
Evictions were allegedly, conducted by soldiers from a nearby army barracks led by Mubende’s then Resident District Commissioner. Residents from the villages of Keitemba, Luwunga, Kijunga and Kiryamakobe reportedly had their houses razed and property looted.
They lost their means of livelihood and are currently struggling to access adequate food, shelter, water, healthcare and education, FIAN said.
UIA rejection
“Neumann did not do anything wrong,” says Dr. Maggie Kigozi, Executive Director of Uganda Investment Authority. “The UIA bought that land from the landowner and the landowner had been the one to resettle the bona fide occupants, or squatters, or whatever you want to call them,” she said.
Kigozi admits that given the size of the land, and the conflicting claims over its earlier ownership, some people might feel they were poorly compensated, but the investment itself cannot be faulted.
“Neumann has invested in a large coffee plantation”, she said. “They produce high-end coffee, they have huge out-grower schemes. The township of Mubende, which used to be a miserable little town, is now booming, because so many people are now employed, either in the plantation, or they are benefiting from being out-growers.”
Still, many believe that the company’s actions have not translated into a fair deal for the aggrieved parties. “There were irregularities in [the] supposed compensation and relocation”, says Charles Businge, Country Director of ActionAid Uganda.
“There were failures to establish true facts regarding who were the occupants of the land before eviction. There were issues that led to forceful eviction by the army even before the notice period had elapsed. We think that if all these issues had been handled professionally, such a case would not have emerged.”
Compensation
According to Ratjen, “Only 2% of the evictees have been compensated and even in their case, compensation is not adequate following national and international standards.” FIAN explains that the OECD - which is itself committed to promoting sustainable economic growth and democratic processes in market economies - has guidelines that require multinational enterprises to act responsibly in host countries by respecting human rights.
Thus, it believes NKG should have ensured such rights were guaranteed before concluding its contract with the Uganda government. Peter Kayiira, an evicted Madudu resident, today heads ‘Stand up and fight for your Rights’, a loose coalition of the 400 dispossessed farmers on whose behalf FIAN has filed its complaint.
In 2002, the coalition, supported by FIAN and ActionAid, moved to sue both the Uganda Government and NKG. “According to the Constitution and the laws, the land is still ours”, Kayira explains.
“So in that case, the restitution of our former holding is inevitable. He says the group is suing for damages incurred by the evictees as their houses were razed and property looted, as well as punitive costs should the court find the treatment meted out to them to have been malicious, while also claiming legal costs.
They are however, still open to out-of-court settlements that will allow them to legally re-settle on two square miles of the contested land and provide suitable compensation for livelihoods lost.
Kaweri adamant
Jeremy Hulme, the Managing Director of Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd appeared unaware of the complaint filed with the OECD, telling The Observer it was a matter that could only be dealt with by NKG’s legal office. He said that the company’s actions and impact simply do not warrant the legal suits brought against it. “We are entirely the innocent party,” said Hulme.
“We paid for and took possession of an unencumbered piece of land, so surely, it is up to those that sold that land, to deliver such. We have no case, as far as we’re concerned, to answer.”
He added that Kaweri grows Robusta coffee over on 1,800 hectares, processes roughly 1,500 tons per year (much of it for export), and is the only substantial producer of ‘Uganda washed robusta’ in the country.
Moreover, it claims to employ some 250 permanent staff, and between 800 to 1,500 seasonal workers. Ratjen agrees the Uganda government must primarily address the case as it has a duty to protect its citizens under international law.
However, “This does not mean that the company has no responsibility towards the respect of human rights when it invests abroad. NKG cannot pretend that it could not appreciate the impact of the establishment of the plantation on the lives of the forcibly evicted people.
The eviction itself took place to enable the project of the company.” On its part, UIA is concerned, but not unduly worried by this latest controversy to embroil one of its most cherished foreign investors.
“The OECD will listen to both sides of the story”, Kigozi states. “They are not about to make decisions based on rumours.”
devapriyo_das@yahoo.co.in
FOOD insecurity and the Maduddu case
Museveni angry over NGO report on land grabbing
Sunday, 06 May 2012 09:07 By Haggai Matsiko
Oxfam and Uganda Land Alliance face
deregistration
Two international
organisations, Oxfam and Uganda Land Alliance (ULA), face de-registration for
what government calls inciting violence over land issues.
On Thursday April 26,
the Internal Affairs Minister, Hillary Onek, under whose docket the NGOs fall,
summoned representatives of the two NGOs to explain an anti-land campaign they
are involved in. He wanted to know what land grabbing they are campaigning
against and whether it exists in Uganda.
Onek’s summon coincided with the climax of the civil society’s flurry of
activities in their week-long campaign against land grabbing.
ULA and Food Rights
Alliance (FRA), a consortium of over 60 NGOs advocating for food security as a
human right, organised the campaign that attracted activists from as far as Netherlands, local NGOs and the church, to a
function at the Uganda Museum in Kampala.
As Onek quizzed representatives of the two NGOs, the rest of their staff were
busy erecting tents, and fliers at the venue. One placard read: “Has the
government conspired to grab our land?” The activists also delivered a petition
to the speaker of parliament and launched a “Land Loser’s Directory”. Groups of
land losers from all parts of the country also gave testimonies on how the
government has aided the grabbing of their land.
Onek and his Assistant
commissioner, Simon Nangilo, sources told The Independent, kicked off a stormy
and highly tense meeting at about 10:30 in the ministry’s boardroom and made
two demands to the NGOs short of which he said they would be deregistered.
“We were held up in a
meeting where we were asked to make a public apology to the people of Uganda and the
President for harming his name,” Esther Obaikol, the Executive Director ULA
told The Independent, “and that if we don’t we will be deregistered.” An Oxfam
official that The Independent approached declined to comment on the matter.
But Obaikol said Oxfam
and ULA asked for two weeks to prepare a response. Observers have likened
Onek’s utimatum to President Museveni’s previous warnings over the same
subject. In the past, the president has threatened to have arrested those that
claim that the government is behind land evictions. Land is a touchy
subject and, the activists say, although the President has sanctioned evictions
in Kampala,
Mubende, Kiboga and Amuru, he cannot take lightly accusations by the NGOs that
his government abets land grabbing.
Agnes Kirabo, the FRA
Coordinator, says there is no need for any apology to Ugandans or the President
and that it is the President himself who should be concerned at the spate of
the land grabbing vice considering that it is at the heart of failing his Ten
Point Programme.
Oxfam, ULA
troubles
This is not the first
time these NGOs are threatened. Last month, The Independent reported how the
Central Bank had launched an investigation in the transactions of Advocates
Coalition on Development and Environment (ACODE). Although BOU insisted such
checks were not unusual, insiders said the move had been triggered by the NGO’s
activism and was an indirect reminder to the organisation that “it could be
dealt with”.
In December last year,
the RDC Amuru castigated local organisations, Foundation for peace Initiative
and Action Aid when they mobilised people to demand for accountability from his
office after it emerged that he had only distributed 1500 iron sheets of the
15,000 that government had released. On top of writing to the president, the
RDC also said on public radio that the involved organisations were recruiting
rebels.
Sources at ULA say that
the ministry has in the past investigated their sources of funding and warned
them against getting involved with Mubende issues where over 22,000 residents
were evicted from their land, their crops destroyed, houses burnt from about 10
villages by security operatives to give way for a plantation forest by UK’s New
Forest Company Uganda Limited (NFC) on the orders of President Museveni.
Oxfam and ULA also
rattled the government when they released a report indicating that 22,000 were
evicted from their land in Mubende. When this reporter travelled to Mubende at
the height of the crisis, officials at the Resident District Commissioner’s
office which handles the land issues (showing the president direct involvement
since RDCs answer mainly to the president) said that Oxfam had done a false
report and asked the reporter to go back to Kampala.
Back in Kampala, sources say that
the government was at the height of kicking Oxfam or its top officials out of
the country.
Oxfam and ULA are now
in trouble mainly because following their noise, NFC which President Museveni
personally penned a number of letters and deployed his ministers and the army
to evict the people and give way for the organization, was force to halt its
activities in Uganda after their financiers withheld funding. The financier,
which is World Bank’s lending arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC) also
tasked its compliance Ombudsman to investigate NFC. The investigations are
ongoing.
Unfortunately for
Oxfam, the incident had opened another can of worms. The NGO has had the worst
brushes with the first lady Janet Museveni in Karamoja, over how to support the
Karamojong pastoralists to develop.
While activists like
Oxfam, argued that pastoralism was the people’s way of life that needed to be
supported if the residents were to develop, the First Lady, who is the minister
in charge of Karamoja Affairs, insisted that pastoralism needed to be abandoned
for commercial crop production.
“Government cannot
romaticise about nomadism as a way of life,” the first lady wrote to the
European Union in November 2010, “because it is a danger that we have to fight
like we fight all other social ills.”
However, despite tons
of money pumped into crop production, activists have deemed the effort
fruitless because it is alien to Karamojongs who, with over 2.3 million cattle,
know only cattle keeping as their way of life. In many cases, procured cassava
cuttings dry up in stores, residents uproot crops before they are ready and
others abandon gardens because it is not their way of life.
This disagreement
worsened the relationship between activists like Oxfam and Mrs Museveni who
looks at the former’s activism as frustrating her efforts.
The latest campaign on
land grabbing seems to have sealed the organisations fate especially
considering that President Museveni personally allocates land to investors and
orders evictions of people in different parts of the country.
Observers say that the
stern warning to the NGOs, coming at a time of vigorous activity against land
grabbing is an indication that that they are crossing paths of important people
in government.
FRA, for instance,
invited hundreds of peasants who testified about loss of their land to
investors, government and army officials. The NGOs launched the land losers’
directory on the same day. The book is intended to document all land losers.
They also petitioned
the Speaker of parliament with seven demands to be discussed notably; ensuring
that the process of acquiring land for investment is transparent and accountable
to the rights holders taking into consideration existing power imbalances
between different parties.
Church weighs in
The NGOs have also
lobbied the Church under the Uganda Joint Christian Council that is
increasingly asserting itself in governance issues and is believed to wield a
lot of power. In a speech, read by Fr. Sylvester Arinaitwe, Archbishop Henry
Luke Orombi who is also the council’s chairman castigated “unlawful evictions”
that have “resulted into landlessness and suffering by thousands of Ugandans.”
He noted that the
situation has been aggravated by two factors—lack of a National Land Policy and
the absence of a pro-poor legal regime that delivers justice to the poor in a
speedy manner.
Orombi noted: “UJCC
welcomes the ongoing initiative by civil society organisations that have
brought together ULA, FRA and UJCC whose main aim is to educate Ugandans on
their rights and challenge oppressive systems and structures that have led to
unlawful eviction of thousands of Ugandans from lands they have occupied for
generations.”
The council chairman
also demanded that the government revives consultations on land policy, makes
the district land tribunals functional, stamps out the culture of impunity, and
ensures strict enforcement of existing laws inorder to prevent cruel evictions
that have become the order of the day.
Museveni at the
heart of evictions
ULA and FRA note that
land grabbing in Uganda has mainly been in form of foreign direct
investment—with investors grabbing large chunks of land to grow forests of
pine, eucalyptus, palm oil, sun flower or food; rice, wheat, sugar or
coffee among others.
Extractive industry
companies also evict people to give way for production of oil, gas, and
minerals.
Local elites and army
generals are also at the centre of land grabs among others.
At the heart of the
NGOs activism are mainly three cases of land grabbing that have attracted
public outcry this year in the districts of Amuru, Masindi, Kabarole and
Kamwenge.
But a more contentious
one that has already pitted activists against President Museveni is the Amaru
eviction of over 10,000-17,000 people from Apar into pabbo sub-county. Although
president Museveni has in the past threatened to deal with those who claim that
government is behind evictions, increasingly, he is personally directing more
and more evictions including this one and the evictees themselves are coming
out to criticise him.
The President wants over
40,000 hectares given to the Madhivani Group to grow sugarcane. The government
claims the land belongs to Madi East Forest Reserve and is, therefore, under
the Uganda Wildlife Authority. But residents insist it is their land. Lives
have been lost in protests, scores arrested, and property destroyed. Local
women have, in the most severe form of protest, stripping naked before the
Madhivani officials to no avail. They are now threatening to strip before
Museveni. But area courts have ruled in favour of the Madhivanis.
This is not the first
time the President is directing massive evictions of people. Under his
directive, 22,000 were evicted from the districts of Kiboga and Mubende to give
way for UK’s
New Forest Company’s pine tree project worth millions of dollars. This eviction
occurred ten years after another massive eviction of over 1000 people also
directed by the president to give way for a large commercial coffee estate by
German’s firm NeuMann Kaffee.
In all these cases,
critics have attacked the government for carrying out the evictions brutally,
failing to compensate the evictees, and failing to secure them alternative
homes. In case of the Mubende evictions, evictees ended up crammed up on the
edges of the two commercial estates. Reports indicate that more than half of
the people that had been evicted from Apar to Pabbo have defied authorities and
returned to the land.
But what many are
questioning is the president’s inconsistence on evictions to give way for
investment. While he approved the evictions by NFC and Madhvani, he has
recently blocked the eviction of over 7,000 in Nakasongola to give way for a
budding sugar company.
Another controversial
eviction is in Kamwenge where FRA notes that 30,000 people are under threat of
evictions from 41square miles of land to be gazetted for resettlement of
refugees from the DRC. Letters from the president himself on the matter
are cited at the centre of the controversy. The Parliamentary Committee on
Presidential Affairs has visited but it is yet to make any recommendations as
residents languish in uncertainty.
ULA also cites another
eviction of 32 household from 42 acres of land in Masindi district by an
individual named Busingye who acquired the land through court compensations.
Apart from these cases,
in Bullisa, oil activities by international oil companies Tullow Oil, among
others, have also exacerbated land grabbing with up to 700 hectares of land
grabbed. Government has also been directly involved in land conflicts
with the residents.
For instance in 2008, a
fight over ownership of some eight square miles of land between State House and
a group of peasants in Hoima was exposed. Pending the proposed construction of
an oil refinery in Hoima, the government has embarked on a land surveying spree
that is feared to lead to another spate of massive evictions.
But these are just
isolated cases. A mini-survey by The Independent shows that there have been
hundreds of evictions and more are pending.
The great land grab
Tuesday, 03 January 2012 14:20 By Haggai Matsiko
UK
and Germany
firms use government officials to grab 20,000 peasants’ land
As people celebrate Christmas, it is a luxury
that others can even hardly afford to think about and have spent their last 10
Christmas like that—sad, poor and displaced.
One of them is Mzee Matayo Kiyitawaguru, 80, one
of the 2,000 people that were forcibly and brutally evicted by the Ugandan army
following the government’s lease of the residents’ land to Kaweri Coffee
Plantation, a subsidiary of the Hamburg-based Neumann Kaffee Gruppe.
Kiyitawaguru, once a proud owner of a 30 iron
sheet house, now lives in one roomed shack and alone. He can only walk with the
aid of a stick.
“They destroyed and burnt everything as bullets
flew in the air,” Kiyitawaguru says, “they lied that they would build us [three
elders] houses, two of us have died I am the only one left.”
Kiyitawaguru lives in a crowded village outside the
vast coffee plantation with some of the people that he was evicted with.
A few metres from his home is David Sekandi whose
grandfather was one of the earliest people to stay on this land. He says that
his ancestors relocated here over 100 years.
Ssekandi reckons that the August of 2001 was like
nothing he had ever seen. “Kids and old people died—some were beaten by
mosquitoes and snakes,” he says, “we used to live in the bush because our
houses were burnt and we had nowhere to stay.”
He adds that with no option, many evictees were
forced to work for the company that displaced them.
The company also displaced the areas main
school-- Kitemba Primary School—where its head office now
comfortably sits. As such many children dropped out of school and now some of
them work in the company – some 15 of them were seen seated outside the head
offices having porridge for lunch.
Workers say they are paid between Shs. 2300—2700
to work on an area of 700 trees of coffee or about two hectares daily. Since Uganda has no minimum
wage, Kaweri officials say that the wages are adequate using the wages in the
tea and sugar sectors as a defence.
No lessons
learnt—Namwasa
Despite public outcry and international concern
over the eviction, 10 years after, another group of 20,000 villagers [2011Oxfam
report] has been evicted by the army, their crops destroyed, houses burnt from
about 10 villages to give way for a plantation forest by New Forest Company
Uganda Limited (NFC).
52 year old, William Bakasheka who represents
part of this group says they are now concentrated in a small village-on a
certain landlord’s one mile and 560 hectares of land on the outskirts of the
forest company.
The villagers here know that as President
Museveni pushed Parliament to pass the Land Amendment Bill 2007, claiming it
was to protect tenants from evictions with one hand, his other hand wrote
letters sanctioning their eviction from the land most of them had spent over 10
years.
“I know for sure that it’s the President that
ordered my eviction from land I had spent about 14 years,” Bakasheka says.
In a Sept 14, 2009 letter, Museveni wrote to the
Minister of Water and Environment, Maria Mutagamba, asking her to evict the
villagers. On his orders, Kirunda Kivejinja (then Internal Affairs) and Asuman
Kiyingi (State for Lands) and Mutagamba to visit the area and order the people
off the land.
“These ministers came here and wanted us to quit
on that very day but one of our leaders negotiated with them to give us a month
so that we could prepare ourselves,” Bakasheka says.
Gold mine
Although, government insists that the area is a
forest reserve, President Museveni’s letter to Mutagamba says the area is
littered with gold. He said Kisita Mining Company was commissioned in 2001 to
prospect for gold in the area.
Museveni was also clear. Only people who settled
in the area by 1992, would be resettled in line with his “Executive Order on
halting the eviction of encroachers” on forests. Of the 20,000, NFC says that
on 32 families were there by 1992.
Several officials disagreed with the eviction but
theirs fell on deaf ears.
Godfrey Kazibwe, the Presidential Advisor on
Luwero Triangle for instance, wrote to the National Forestry Authority in April
2009 dismissing claims that the area was a forest reserve and telling them not
to evict people.
“There is suspicion that the land in question is
not part of the forest reserve and the people involved are private individuals
disguising themselves as NFA personnel whereas not, or are using some elements
in NFA,” Justus Karuhanga, President Museveni’s former legal aide, also wrote
to the RDC Mubende, on July 25, 2005.
Apart from the two, residents sold their
remaining belongings, raised Shs20million and sued the forest company for
harassing, and trying to evict them.
On Aug 24, 2009, High Court at Nakawa issued an
order restraining it from evicting people. The directive was to be heard on Oct
8, 2009 but Justice Faith Mwondha extended it to March 18, 2010.
However, on December 11, 2009, ministers
Kivejinja, Mutagamba, Kiyingi and RDC Bewayo at a rally told the people to
vacate the land by Feb 28, 2010.
On Jan 3, 2010, the army arrested some of the
villagers and their leaders in Kyamukasa as they met to plan on what to do. And
the evictions took off. Although NFC authorities say the eviction process was
peaceful, Bakashesha says that one kid died in one of the houses that were
burnt, another fell in a water pond as they escaped.
Zawedde Lukwago & Co. Advocates, the counsel
for the villagers says that two schools were closed by the forestry company. Ssefra Parents
School had 350 pupils while Mpologoma Parents School
had 400.
Government officials say most of these are
illegal immigrants from Congo
and Rwanda.
But Bakasheka disputes this saying that they were given land
by Kayoga Lubega (commander of the world war heroes) that the president had
given him to distribute amongst the sons and grandsons of heroes.
“Government had given us LCs, we had polling
stations, if they knew we were illegal immigrants why did they give us LC and
polling stations; they knew we were here lawfully,” Bakasheka says.
Bakasheka, still the NRM chairman in his village
- he registered supporters for the party - says they were threatened to vote
for Museveni.
“We were threatened, we were told that if you
give Besigye votes, Museveni will go back to the bush and you will have two
wars to fight hunger and war,” he says, But honestly now I am NRM on the skin
but not at heart.”
The displaced group mainly farmers have lost
years of their hard labour. Most of them are renting shelter in a small trading
centre. On the outskirts of the trading centre, hundreds of the evictees have
erected one-roomed-triangular-shaped grass thatched shacks where they stay in
what looks like a refugee camp.
Everything here including food, Bakasheka says,
is expensive, most of these people can hardly feed themselves, how can they
feed their families, all their lives they depended on one thing farming but now
they have nowhere to farm.
According to the Population and Housing Census
Analytical Report 2005, the district’s population is projected at 603,900 in
2012. Of these, 78.2 percent of the households depend mainly on subsistence
farming.
Like Kiyitawaguru and all those displaced by
Kaweri coffee, these people know not Christmas and some of them are not likely
to have a meal on that day. The cheapest meal here goes for Shs.3000, yet a
labourer on a plantation which is what most of them do earns a maximum of Shs
2700.
Many kids have dropped out of school. Bakasheka
who is arguably better off is a frustrated man. He had four kids in secondary
school, three of which have since dropped out because of lack of school fees.
He says that nobody cares about them as if they
are a cursed lot. “Ever since we were displaced, no single government official
has ever cared to know where we relocated to, how we are copying, no one,” he
says sadly, “It is only NGO’s like Oxfam, journalists and Uganda Land Alliance
that keep coming to see how we do.”
It is not two years since Bakasheka and his
fellow villagers were displaced. But for Kiyitawaguru and all those evicted by
Kaweri coffee, it is now over 10 years and the government has never cared to
look their way despite several promises to compensate them. “We only see them
during campaigns and when they get votes that is where it ends,” Ssekandi says.
Together, Kaweri coffee and New Forest Company
have displaced over 22,000 people in Mubende district alone. Going by the
2002 Population and Housing Census which put the district’s population at
436,493, the two international companies have evicted five percent of the
population. Since 2007, over 17,000 were also evicted the neigbhoring Kiboga
district.
The total area of Mubende District is 1793.4 sq
Mile or 464,611.4 Hectares. But of this the two companies sit on 22510 hectares
or 87 sq Mile - Kaweri 2510 and NFC 20,000 hectares.
As you traverse the district, there are thick
commercial plantations mainly of commercial pine forests that residents say
were once home to people. Residents say that there are more villagers where
evictions are looming because of commercial plantations.
According to the environmental alert report 2006,
forested area outside protected areas in Mubende was estimated at 123,127
hectares which is 26.5 percent.
The National Forest Authority claims that by
leasing what they say is a forest reserve to private commercial farmer’s they
are rejuvenating Uganda’s
diminishing forest cover. John Diisi, NFA’s Coordinator of GIS/Mapping, said
out of Uganda’s
3.6 million hectares of forest cover, 80,000 hectares is lost each year.
This could gain Uganda a lot of carbon credits but
according to Oxfam denying the residents due compensation, NFC contravened
international practices regarding resettlement and development.
Oxfam Country Director Ayman Omer says their
report was not looking at the legality of people on the land, but at their
rights. “You cannot just evict them without giving them alternative
livelihoods,” Omer told The Independent.
Oxfam also found the term “encroachers”
offensive. “This is a dangerously loaded term that pre-judges people’s rights
and dehumanizes them, making it easier to justify violent actions. And it is a
highly misleading term, because the people maintain that they did in fact have
lawful entitlement to the land and were testing that argument in ongoing legal cases,”
the report argued.
But NFC blames the delay in
resettling the entitled families on the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban
Development, whose mandate it says was to provide compensation.
No one wants to comment on land issues in Mubende
because apparently it is risky. At the district headquarters after several
requests, a top district official agreed to talk to us but on conditions of
anonymity. But the official started with a warning:
“My son be careful as you follow these land
issues in Mubende, you are still young and your parents still love you. These
people who have deployed armies, fired bullets and shot some people cannot sit
as you expose them.”
Asked why there were rampant land evictions in
Mubende than any other district in Uganda,
the official said that the main reason was that much of the land in Mubende was
Mailo land belonging to Buganda
Kingdom but was grabbed
by individuals and has been changing hands since then.
The district official also added that knowing
that most of this land belonged to the Buganda Kingdom,
several top government officials have connived with multinational companies to
evict people from the land. This land according to the official is in former
Bewekula and Singo counties part of the 9000 sqmiles.
The official cited plantation farming as one of
the major drivers of evictions adding that while people have heard about mainly
Kaweri and Namwasa evictions many people have been evicted by powerful
individuals who buy land expensively and fence off other dwellers forcing them
to sell. The official cited lack of effective laws to protect landlords and
squatters.
Apart from nongovernmental organizations and some
of the evicted, the district official said that the only person that has
authoritaty on the land issues is the Resident District Commissioner because of
the office’s deep involvement in displacing people.
Although the district has a land board, according
to the official, this has not taken any part because the directives come from
the President’s office thus the direct connection with the RDC’s office.
So touchy is the matter that when this reporter
approached the Deputy RDC, Evelyn Tinkamarirwe, she quickly referred him to the
District Internal Security Officer (DISO), where she called a small meeting to
probe the reporter’s intentions.
“The Namwasa issue has reached a point of no
correction by local media, Oxfam an international NGO came and did a false
report,” one of the officers said as the, “there is not much you can change, we
would advise to go back to Kampala.”
While Mubende is at the centre of massive land
evictions and grabbing cases, several parts of the country have suffered too.
For instance in Buliisa and Hoima districts,
since the discovery of massive deposits of oil of about 2billion barrels, it
was estimated that by 2009 over 700 hectares of land were grabbed and people
evicted. Some hundreds of people in Bullisa still complain that they have not
been compensated.
A Feb 2008 World Bank northern Uganda land study
found that Government was massively grabbing land either directly or indirectly
through military officers to give it to investors. The report pointed to high
ranking military officers who had grabbed land in Acholi particularly Amurru
Districts and the elite Acholis in Kitgum District.
Although the Land Act 1998 prohibits the sale of
land to non-Ugandan enterprises and foreign companies, President has made it
his habit to give them land and in most cases free of charge.
A 2009-2010 report by FIAN, Food First
Information and Action Network, an international organization, found that the
government has reportedly leased 2m feddans of land (840,127 ha) – a staggering
2.2% of Uganda’s total area – in various parts of the country to Egypt, so that
Egypt’s private sector may come in and produce wheat and maize for export to
Cairo.
In 2003, the High Commissioner for Human Rights
observes that ‘this race to attract investment might lead to a race to the
bottom to the severe detriment of human rights.
Oxfam calls for land grab investigation in Uganda
http://www.oxfam.ca/grow/learn/issues/land/land-grab-investigation-uganda
Oxfam calls on the New Forests Company to investigate Uganda land grabs claims.In Uganda, more than 20,000 people were evicted, some forcibly, from their homes and the land they depended on, to make way for the New Forest Company's plantations.
Oxfam went to Uganda to hear how villagers have been left destitute, without enough food or money to send their children to school. Many villagers believe that the company was involved in the evictions. Oxfam is calling for the New Forests Company, which denies that it was involved in any evictions, to investigate these claims.
Investigation into the eviction of more than 20,000 Ugandans must ensure justice for affected people
http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/pressroom/reactions/investigation-eviction-more-20000-ugandans-must-ensure-justice-affected-people
Published: 22 September 2011
"Oxfam welcomes the announcement by the British company The New Forests Company (NFC) to investigate the eviction of more than 20,000 people in Uganda to make way for its forestry plantations. The investigation must be carried out independently and transparently and its findings made public as soon as possible. These people lost their land and their homes and received no compensation.
“Oxfam is concerned that the New Forests Company continues to maintain that all the evictions were voluntary and peaceful, when the evidence and testimony of the people affected clearly shows otherwise. The company must wake up to the reality that something went terribly wrong in Uganda and that it has a responsibility to make amends. Only then can the men, women and children who are now struggling to survive get compensation and alternative land and begin to piece their lives back together.”
The company claims that audits by The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) show that the evictions were voluntary and peaceful. However, Oxfam believes that both processes fell well short of internationally-accepted standards and did not cover both plantations under investigation. In addition the reports do not take account of the experiences of affected communities and do not substantiate their conclusions with hard evidence.
Oxfam’s research indicates that at least 22,500 people have lost their homes and land to make way for the British timber company. Many evictees told Oxfam how they were forcibly removed and have been left destitute, without enough food or money to send their children to school.
New Forests Company statement in response to Oxfam's report (22 September 2011):
“The New Forests Company takes Oxfam’s allegations extremely seriously and will conduct an immediate and thorough investigation of them. Our understanding of these resettlements is that they were legal, voluntary and peaceful and our first hand observations of them confirmed this.“This has been corroborated on a number of occasions by meticulous audits of the company by highly respected international organisations including the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and the IFC (International Finance Corporation, part of World Bank). The FSC concluded that: “Officials consider Namwasa one of their most peaceful and successful experiences in encouraging illegal encroachers to voluntarily leave Central Forestry Reserves and would like to use the model for controversial areas in the future.
‘NFC is puzzled by the extent to which Oxfam’s anecdotal evidence is so at odds with these findings.
‘NFC also regrets Oxfam’s decision to publish this highly prejudicial report without having given NFC the opportunity to investigate its claims.
‘In attacking the NFC Oxfam have chosen a company with an impeccable track record in community investment and development who in their short life have not only created over 2,000 jobs in remote rural Ugandan communities but been responsible for increasing access to health, education, clean water and fuel. Africa needs responsible inward investment.’’
Oxfam warns that modern day land rush is forcing thousands into greater poverty
“I was threatened – they told me they were going to beat me
if we didn’t leave.”
Christine
Farmer from Kiboga district, Uganda
Published: 22 September 2011
Oxfam calls for British company to investigate the forced eviction of more than 20,000 Ugandans to make way for its plantations
Oxfam today launches a major new report highlighting the growing pace of land deals brokered around the world, often to the peril of poor communities who lose their homes and livelihoods – sometimes violently – with no prior consultation, compensation or means of appeal.In the report Land and Power, the international agency reveals preliminary research indicating as many as 227 million hectares have been sold, leased or licensed in large-scale land deals since 2001, mostly by international investors. Lack of transparency and the secrecy that surrounds land deals makes it difficult to get exact figures but to date up to 1,100 of these deals amounting to 67 million hectares have been cross checked. Half of these deals are in Africa, and cover an area nearly the size of Germany. (1)
Oxfam warns this modern day land rush follows a drive to produce enough food for people overseas, meet damaging biofuels targets or speculate on land to make an easy profit. However, many of the deals are in fact ‘land grabs’ where the rights and needs of the people living on the land are ignored, leaving them homeless and without land to grow enough food to eat and make a living.
This is likely to get worse as the increasing demand for food, the gathering pace of climate change, water scarcity and non-food crops like biofuels compete for land. Already, nearly three billion people live in areas where demand for water outstrips supply.
Land grabs: devastating vulnerable communities
Oxfam International’s Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs said: “The unprecedented pace of land deals and the increased competition for land is leaving many of the world’s poorest people worse off. In the scramble for more land, investors are ignoring the people who currently live on the land and depend on it to survive.”Oxfam’s report profiles the devastating effect land grabs in Uganda, South Sudan, Indonesia, Honduras and Guatemala are having on vulnerable communities. The report is part of Oxfam’s GROW campaign which aims to secure a future where everyone has enough to eat. Women, who produce up to 80 per cent of food in some poor countries, are usually most vulnerable as they have weaker land rights.
In Uganda, Oxfam’s research indicates that at least 22,500 people have lost their homes and land to make way for a British timber company, the New Forests Company. Many evictees told Oxfam how they were forcibly removed and have been left destitute, without enough food or money to send their children to school. There were court orders in force which named the company but eye-witnesses say that company workers took part in some of the evictions anyway. NFC denies that it was involved in any evictions. (2)
Evicted without consultation or compensation
Christine, a farmer in her mid 40s, who lived in Kiboga district before the Uganda land grab said: “All our plantations were cut down – we lost the banana and cassava. We lost everything we had. The company’s casual laborers would attack us – they beat and threatened people. Even now they won’t let us back in to look for the things we left behind. I was threatened – they told me they were going to beat me if we didn’t leave.”Hobbs said: “The Uganda case clearly shows how land grabs are slipping through the net of existing safeguards which are intended to ensure the protection of vulnerable people. Thousands of people are suffering because they have been evicted without meaningful consultation or compensation.
“The New Forests Company describes itself as an ethical company, adhering to international standards. It needs to investigate these claims urgently. It’s not acceptable for companies to blame governments. They must respect the needs and rights of poor communities affected by their investment.”
Prioritize existing land use rights
Oxfam is calling for investors, governments and international organizations to prioritize putting a stop to land grabbing by fixing the current policies and regulations which all too often fail to ensure that, when investors negotiate deals, local people are consulted, treated fairly, and that all relevant international standards are respected. These include the World Bank's International Finance Corporation Performance Standards and the Forest Stewardship Council’s standards.Governments should avoid pandering to investors’ wishes, and prioritize existing land use rights – not just where legal land title or formal ownership rights are held. Governments should recognize that women have equal rights over land and ensure that all agricultural investments benefit local communities who rely on the land to survive. While governments and companies get their house in order to stop future land grabbing, there is an urgent need to remedy the damage done by existing land grabs, including in the case of the Uganda international investment.
Flawed biofuels policies
Perverse incentives such as the flawed biofuels targets, like the EU’s target of obtaining 10 per cent of transport fuels from renewable sources by 2020, should be scrapped to curb the rush on land to meet biofuel demand.Meanwhile, the UN’s Committee on Food Security in Rome could take an important first step when it meets in Rome next month, by adopting credible pro-poor, pro-women guidelines on land tenure.
Hobbs said: “Land investment should be good news for people in poverty but the frenetic scramble for land risks putting development in reverse. We need urgent global action so that local people with relatively little do not lose everything for the benefit of a few, and to secure a future where everyone has enough to eat.”
