A new report exposed continued large-scale illegal ivory trading in Tanzania and Zambia on the eve of the opening of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Qatar in late March. However, the governments of the two countries proposed to CITES that they should be allowed to sell $15 million worth of tusks.

The report, ‘The Burgeoning Illegal Ivory Trade in Tanzania and Zambia’, by the ‘Environmental Investigation Agency’ (EIA), a non-profit group based in Washington, DC and London, quoted in This Day, said that undercover investigators had found evidence of a flourishing trade in illegal ivory in both countries. It said that Tanzania’s elephant population had declined by more than 30,000 elephants between 2006 and 2009, primarily from poaching to supply black-market ivory to Asia. This was said to be concentrated around the Selous Game Reserve, where 40% of the country’s elephants are found.

A seemingly innocent proposal by the government to sell 90 tonnes of its ivory stockpiles worth $15 million to provide much needed revenue came under severe criticism. There was strong opposition from the tourist business in Tanzania. Chairman of the Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors (ZATI) Mohammed Simai said that the campaign would impede Tanzania’s efforts to promote tourism, including game viewing in prominent national reserves like Selous, Serengeti and Ngorongoro. He urged President Kikwete to intervene and stop the proposed sale and added that the $15 million was a drop in the sea compared to potential losses from tourism. Tanzania earned Shs 1.6 trillion in 2008 from 640,000 tourists accounting for some 17% of GDP. Zanzibar would lose heavily because 30% of foreigners who came to Zanzibar had been game viewing tourists on the mainland.

Next, there was a visit to Tanzania by a delegation from CITES to assess if the country deserved a stockpile trade window. The government argued that its elephant population was safe and on the rise.

However, at the CITES conference in Qatar, issues of poaching were high on the agenda and Tanzania’s proposal attracted opposition from East Africa Community partners Kenya and Rwanda, and angered several other western countries and conservation groups. Britain’s Environmental Secretary Hilary Benn declared that the UK would vote no. The London Times had declared that Tanzania had established itself as the leading country for the illegal slaughter and export of ivory. Up to 50 elephants were killed every month at Selous it wrote and the authorities were torching the carcasses as a cover up. Other countries that called for a 20-year included Mali, Benin, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Government of Southern Sudan. Zambia was the only African country to support Tanzania.

Tanzania’s proposal was eventually rejected by CITES.

And in the Philippines
In the Philippines, a wildlife officer has been suspected of stealing at least part of 700 kilos of elephant tusks worth $2 million which had been smuggled into the country from Tanzania. According to the Director the country’s Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, the ivory – valued at $65,000 – had been part of a 4,000-kilo shipment of tusks impounded at Manila airport in July 2009. The seals on some of the boxes had been broken and some of the original tusks had been replaced by replicas made of PVC pipes covered with plaster. She went on: “This is really embarrassing because we should be among the proactive countries protecting such internationally-important species.

In a related development, 23 African countries told the European Union to support protection of the continent’s elephants and that, in return, they would help the EU to protect bluefin tuna. However, if the EU did not back their case, they threatened to oppose Europe’s proposal to ban trade in the giant fish. At the CITES meeting in March the proposed ban on fishing for blue tuna was overwhelmingly defeated after considerable lobbying by Japan which consumes large quantities.

Dr Anna Tibaijuka, Under Secretary General of the UN and Executive Director of UN Habitat, has been given the ‘Goteborg Award for Sustainable Development’ which is widely considered equivalent to the Nobel Prize for the environment. It is awarded by the City of Goteborg in Sweden. In accepting the award, which comes with a cash prize of $147,000, she spoke in Swedish and said that the money would be channnelled to the UN Habitat’s support for young people living in slums. This provoked mirth among the Tanzanian government delegation, who vehemently shook their heads in mock disappointment. “How dare she? We cannot come all the way to this cold country and not be rewarded even with a cup of tea” one of them joked loudly.

In Stockholm she launched her book ‘Building Prosperity: and Economic Development’.

And, in Tanzania, US Ambassador Alfonso Lenhardt has presented the 2010 ‘Tanzanian Woman of Courage Award’ to Ananilea Nkya, Executive Director of the Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA) for her efforts to promote equality, opportunity and justice for Tanzanian women and girls. The Ambassador stressed that education will enhance women’s participation in the country’s economic activities and free them from early marriages, pregnancy and HIV/Aids. “For a bird to fly straight and high, both wings must be equally strong and developed. Both men and women must fully possess social and political rights and have equal opportunity to go for higher education”, he said. He said Nkya was given the award due to her efforts in using the mass media to raise awareness, speak out on gender-based violence, train women journalists and help repeal laws that limit women’s rights. He said that Nkya had designed a media campaign against a Zanzibar law which made pregnancy out of wedlock a crime and managed to spearhead amendments to the Marriage Act which currently allows girls younger than 18 to be married. He said that Nkya trained women politicians in 2005 aiming to increase their numbers in politics. As a result there were 1, 500 women candidates compared to 200 in previous elections. He said that through TAMWA, the government passed the ‘Sexual Offences Special Provision Act of 1998’ which criminalized FGM and increased the punishment of rapists to 30 years in jail.

Nkya is the third recipient of the Tanzania Woman of Courage Award since the US Embassy initiated it. The other recipients are Helen Kijo-Bisimba, Executive Director of the ‘Legal and Human Rights Centre’ in 2008 and Anne Malecela, MP for Same East in 2009 – Guardian.

FISH – LUCRATIVE DEAL
Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Dr. John Magufuli has stated that, after he had landed a lucrative deal for investment in the fishing industry, Tanzania’s deep sea is no longer a free harvest zone. The agreement with Japan’s Tuna Co-operatives Association (JTCA)is expected to earn the country over Shs 200 billion in licence fees and tax revenues annually. The contract provides for 30 fishing vessels from Japan to harvest tuna from the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone – Tanzania Daima.

“THEY PREFER TANZANIA”
The Guardian reports an announcement by the Immigration Department that of the 1,528 illegal migrants caught in 2009, 985 had appeared in court and had been repatriated between January and October 2009. A spokesman said that they preferred living in Tanzania rather than in other much less stable countries where life was unbearable. The majority of the immigrants who were caught came from Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Burundi, Rwanda and Kenya. These were classified in different groups, depending on the seriousness of their offence as some were discovered to have genuine cases but failed to follow laid down regulations. Of the 106 who came from Somalia, 75 appeared in court and were returned home while the rest were advised to follow legal procedures to acquire citizenship. Of the 486 from Ethiopia, 351 were repatriated and from the DRC 532 out of 578 were sent home.

President Kikwete hails Cote d`Ivoire

The Ivory Coast football team was in Tanzania at the beginning of the year playing against ‘Taifa Stars’. Football fan President Kikwete presented the team’s skipper Didier Drogba with a Taifa Stars coloured jersey bearing his name and expressed his sincere appreciation to the team for honouring the invitation to tour Tanzania and play two friendly internationals against the Stars and Rwanda.

The President, who hosted a luncheon for the three teams and the host side, said that the presence of the West African side in Dar es Salaam had given the Stars a level of international coverage they had probably never received before. He said the Cote d’Ivoire’s skipper Didier Drogba’s trademark glancing header that separated the two teams during the match was followed by huge publicity across the soccer fraternity worldwide. “Thank you very much for the tour; you have played a big role in elevating the standard of our own team” he said. Despite the slim win by the visitors, the host side had gained massive applause from the fans not only in Tanzania but also across the globe – Guardian .

And a victory of sorts
Then on March 27, Taifa Stars won an international match in the lead up to next years African Nations Championship (CHAN) to be held in Sudan. They won by a score of 6 -0 to qualify for the next stage which will see them play against Rwanda. But in this football match the unhappy opposing team was from war-torn Somalia, who had already forfeited the return match being unable to host a second stage competition match because of the state of affairs at home.

Tanzania in the final

At the end of March the final of a ‘Deloitte Street Child Football World Cup’ was held at the Durban University of Technology in South Africa. Among the many sponsors were David Beckham, Gary Lineker and Theo Walcott (who supported Ukraine). The Tanzanian team in this seven-a-side competition did very well. It reached the final against India and was defeated by only one goal.
Thank you Peter Park for alerting us to this story – Editor.

The 25-year $31 million contract agreement signed in 2007 between the government and Rail India Technical and Economic Services Ltd (Rites) under which Rites took over the majority 51% share of Tanzania Railways and agreed to manage it, has gone sour. Details of earlier developments were given in TA No 94.

Apparently, according to the East African, in an effort to improve railway services, TRL hired 23 passenger coaches from Rites. Inspectors from Tanzania visited the firm in India which was manufacturing them in 2008 and recommended changes. The coaches arrived in Tanzania in September 2008 and, after testing and further modifications, they started operating in January 2009. Unfortunately, in March, a passenger train collided with a goods train near Gulwe station. After an inspection, the government recommended that the coaches be suspended from operations pending an in-depth investigation. TRL stopped using the coaches on September 10.

In mid October the workers laid down their tools for eight hours because they claimed that the coaches ‘didn’t deserve to be used for carrying passengers and therefore there was no need to inspect them again.’ The Guardian then reported that Rites had issued a 60-day ultimatum to the government stating that, if it did not pay some $30 million for hiring the locomotives, Rites would leave the country.

Addressing TRL workers in mid-November Minister of Infrastructure Dr Shukuru Kawambwa said the government, though unhappy with TRL, could not immediately terminate the contract for fear of plunging the country into a deeper crisis and it could be taken to The Hague. The Minister said that the government had been using taxpayer’s money to pay salaries for TRL workers since March 2008, hoping that once the business picked up, the company would run on its own, but that had not been the case.

Meanwhile a promised loan of $44 million from the World Bank for TRL to undertake a massive rehabilitation of the railway system including the supply of 90 locomotives 1, 280 freight wagons and 110 passenger coaches was being held up.
According to Tanzania Daima, President Kikwete spent some time discussing the 60-day notice given to the government and then instructed the Minister to make a decision.

As this issue of TA went to press in December the Guardian reported that the Central Line had been paralyzed after workers downed tools over delay in paying salaries. A group of them stormed the company’s headquarters in an attempt to force the foreign and other senior management staff out of their offices, but the police stopped them.

All refugee camps in Kagera Region were officially closed on September 30 in a ceremony in Ngara witnessed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The buildings and other facilities were handed over to the respective local authorities for use as they wished. Only an estimated 100,000 Burundian and Congolese refugees now remain in Tanzania in two camps in Kigoma Region. Since 1995 the UNHCR has extended more than $5m in support of the refugees in Ngara District alone. The UN agency commended the Tanzanian government for its role in accommodating more than 600,000 Burundi and Rwandese refugees and also contributed $20 million for rehabilitation of the camps for future use – The Guardian.

Disputes over land are occurring all over the world. In Tanzania the land rights issue of most significance at present, which is attracting the greatest interest among human rights activists and overseas donors, is the long standing dispute over land occupancy in part of the Loliondo Game Controlled Area (LGCA). Exacerbating the whole situation is the serious drought which has been affecting the area for some time.

Hunting
In 1992 the government leased over 4, 000 square kilometres of the LGCA to the UAR Sheikh, Brigadier Mohammed Abdulrahim Al-Ally, for hunting purposes through the Ortello Business Corporation (0BC). It is understood that members of various Arab royal families and businessmen spend weeks in Loliondo each year, hunting antelopes, lions, leopards, and other wild animals. The company wants the villagers evicted from the area ‘under their control’ for the good of the ecosystem and to make it possible for hunting activities to run smoothly.

However, the villagers have vowed not to leave what, in their view, is the rightful land of their ancestors. Since the lease was signed there has been a gradual eviction of the largely Maasai pastoralists resident there. However, things came to a head in July 2009 with reports that the government’s police field force unit had set fire to as many as 200 extended homesteads displacing an estimated 2 – 3,000 people from homes they had occupied for many years. Some being burnt down allegedly to protect the company’s right to the land.
This provoked a public outcry.

Protest on completion of Danish-aid project
Danish Ambassador to Tanzania, Bjarne Sorensen addressed hundreds of pastoralists in the district at the handing over of the ‘Ngorongoro Pastoralist Project ‘Ereto’, a 15-year project that had aimed to fight poverty and improve the lives of the people in Ngorongoro. The project has recorded significant progress in key issues like water supply, animal health-care, restocking livestock, establishing women’s economic groups and HIV/Aids awareness. The Ambassador said that through consultation with others, he had been able to see and hear that evictions and burnings of bomas did indeed take place. “I would like the Government to be open in this dialogue to secure the rule of law.” The violent evictions had overshadowed the support Denmark had been providing to the Maasai communities in the area. Sorensen criticized the Government for not ending the evictions and added that the evictions were a matter of great concern to the Danish people, European Union member states and the African Commission on Human Rights. “ I call on the Government to stop all the evictions and associated actions,” he said. “With regret” he went on “it seems that our support to Loliondo District through ‘Ereto’ has failed as, apparently, an environment of fear and intimidation now seems to exist.” However, the ambassador said he remained convinced that the government would continue to support sustainable improvement where conservation and development were promoted hand in hand.

Later, over 50 victims of the forced evictions, at a meeting in Dar es Salaam, urged the Government to immediately stop the operation and help them with basic needs like water, food and health facilities. They lashed out at the government for treating them inhumanely and accused the police and district authorities of teaming up with OBC to illegally remove them from their ancestral land.

Government reaction
Natural Resources and Tourism Minister Shamsa Mwangunga said that investigations had begun to establish the root cause of the problem and find a lasting way out. She was officiating at the handing over ceremony of the Danish aided project. She called on all concerned “to have trust in the government’s intentions” of ensuring that justice would be done. It was part of the government’s responsibility to ensure that legal investments were adequately protected while also safeguarding the interests of wananchi “without allowing a few individuals, organisations or institutions to foment unrest.” She revealed that the government would very soon embark on land use planning in Ngorongoro District, ‘with a view to clearly demarcating land for use by local residents and as wildlife protected areas’.

Parliamentary investigation
As concern mounted, parliament resolved that an investigation would be conducted by one of its committees in the eight villages which were affected by the eviction operation. Then local human rights activists under the Feminist Activists Coalition (FemAct) expressed their intention to offer legal aid to the victims in litigation against the government. 100 witnesses had been lined up to testify. “We will file a criminal case against those who were involved in the burning of kraals and harassment of Maasai residents in the area, and a civil case to seek compensation for property which was destroyed during the operation,” they said.

On September 12 disgruntled villagers staged a peaceful march to the State House in Dar es Salaam for an audience with President Kikwete but their mission was not successful. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has also sent a written request to President Kikwete to intervene – from the Guardian and many other sources.

The High Court, sitting in Shinyanga specifically to preside over cases involving albino killings, delivered its first judgment on September 23. It sentenced to death three accused persons including the husbands of two wives for abducting and killing a young boy. The wives said they saw severed legs being recovered from a nearby bush which one of the accused had been using for soothsaying.

Reacting to the news that the population of Tanzania (presently approaching 40 million) was growing by 3% and would, therefore, by 2025 have grown to 80 million, the Head of the Tanzania Family Planning Association (UMATI) said that little effort was being made to address family planning issues. The fertility rate during the last two decades was equivalent to six children per woman. He criticized the government and donors for investing more efforts in tackling HIV/Aids and forgetting other areas like family planning which also affected the economy. Collective efforts were needed in addressing family planning issues to arrest the country’s rapid population growth. He said that 40% of the Association’s budget came from the government and the rest from donors. The 2008/09 contraceptive budget was estimated at 9.2bn/- but only 3.5bn/- was released in 2009. The procurement process took six to eight months to identify suppliers and arrange delivery – Guardian

The police have had increasing success in dealing with violent armed robberies which took place during 2009.
Eight people have appeared in court on 14 charges following the July 31 robbery with violence at NMB Bank’s Temeke branch.

They were charged with murdering a security guard and a police officer and stealing over Shs 61 million. Some of the accused also appeared in court charged with stealing a vehicle on June 21 at Magomeni, a car valued at Shs 6 million on March 31 at Mwananyamala, and the robbery of a motorcycle and vehicle, both valued at Shs 25 million, at Changombe. With the exception of the murder charge, the accused pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Three of the accused asked the court to allow them to seek treatment for injuries allegedly caused by torture while in police custody. The request was rejected and they were told that their offences were not bailable and that they would receive treatment in remand.

This is the third time in three years that police have detained suspects they have subsequently appeared in court charged with murder and armed robbery after raids targeting the NMB Bank. On April 20, 2006, armed gangsters waylaid bank vehicles at the Ubungo traffic lights in Dar es Salaam and made off with tens of millions of shillings after killing two people and injuring several others. Sixteen people are facing murder and armed robbery charges at the High Court.
On July 11, 2007, robbers struck at the Bank’s Mwanga branch in Kilimanjaro Region, and killed one person before fleeing with Shs 234 million. Eleven people, including several Kenyans, have been charged in connection with the robbery – The Citizen.