Multiple horrible abuse has been
going on in Loliondo, and I’m working on a very delayed and very long blog
post, full of incomplete information. I must however now write about the most malicious
and stupid ongoing illegal arrests that people were shockingly silent about for
days, and ask anyone who can help to please do so.
Update: Clinton and
Ingrid were released Monday afternoon 17/9 after three and five nights of illegal arrest.
I hope more details will follow.
I want to make it
clear that I had hardly even heard about Ingrid before the arrest, and have
never had had communication with her whatsoever, before or after.
More updates below.
On Friday 14th September I got an email with a short greeting from Manyerere Jackton, the “journalist” who has written over 50 articles full of hate speech against the Maasai of Loliondo. This only happens when he’s up to something bad, like another defamatory article in support of land alienation to benefit the “investor” in Loliondo, or illegal arrests of real or imagined friends of mine. He wanted to know if I was in Loliondo. Later the same day I was contacted by people saying that some “investor friendly” individuals were commenting that I had been arrested after crossing the border in Ngaresero, in the vehicle of an NGO… This was “interesting” to hear when I was sitting at home in Sweden being sad because I hadn’t been invited to a wedding in Kirtalo, even if I wouldn’t have been able to attend it, or anything else in Tanzania, anyway, ever.
Then,
in the evening (still Friday) a news alert from Tanzania Human Rights
Defenders’ coalition was shared. It carried terrible news. THRDC had just
learned about the arbitrary arrests at the wedding of my friend, secondary
school teacher Clinton Eng’wes Kairung, on Tuesday 11th September. Those
arrested were a Belgian national, Ingrid de Graeve, who works with Upendo
Orphanage Centre in Arusha, the groom himself, Clinton, and two other people accompanying
Ingrid, about whom I’ve not yet got any information at all, and don’t even know
if they exist. The guests were supposed to have been arrested at the ceremony and
Clinton later in the evening. THRDC added that Clinton was once arrested and
charged with espionage and later his case was withdrawn after their
intervention, and finalized saying that they were making close follow up to
know the truth of this incident, the reasons for their arrest, and the police
station in which they are currently detained, and that would keep us posted as they
got to know more details.
This
information seemed vague, shockingly delayed, and bound to be corrected. I
shared it in social media, but nobody came forward with more details than that
the grapevine was saying that, “Ingrid is the banned Susan Norland (Susanna
Nordlund). She was able to come in with another nationality/passport as her
original Swedish passport was stamped prohibited person!” If I had the
resources to change my nationality and establish myself in Arusha, I would
surely also be able to get more and better information for my blog… Further, my
passport wasn’t even stamped when I was arrested in 2015, and the problem is my
fingerprints that I can’t change and that are registered everywhere, and even
more the very dangerous servants of “investors” in Loliondo, even if they fortunately
seem to have forgotten what I look like.
On
Saturday 15th September, I was informed that Clinton and Ingrid had
been taken to Arusha and were still under arrest. I heard from one person who went
to Arusha Central Police station to check, which is brave indeed by current
Loliondo standards, even if those working there are busy with a variety of
thieves (those in 2015 were quite charming and sincere compared to Immigration officials)
and probably don’t have much of a stake in bizarre repression in Loliondo, but the
only information this person could obtain was that nothing would happen until Monday.
Since
I hadn’t heard any other reason for the arrests than the very strange belief that
Ingrid would be me, I got a photo of myself under an apple tree holding my
passport, and my laptop showing that it was 15th September. I posted
this in social media to prove that I wasn’t arrested in Tanzania. Then, and
only then, late Saturday evening did someone directly affected and with
first-hand information break the silence.
Supuk
Olemaoi, another secondary school teacher, wrote a Facebook post in Swahili (so
I hope that I’ve understood it correctly) that he on Tuesday 11th
September was asked by Clinton to receive his friend and wedding guest in
Wasso, and before continuing to the wedding in Kirtalo, take her to the
Immigration office so that she could attend the celebrations without problems. I
suppose this would be a normal procedure in North Korea, and I assume that Ingrid
is even a Tanzanian resident. I’m afraid that the Immigration visit only served
to draw unnecessary attention to a short Loliondo visit.
In
the evening when leaving the wedding in Kirtalo, Supuk got an SMS telling him
that I, Susanna, had been sighted in Wasso and that the police was looking for
me. Supuk disregarded this message since he knew that it was just street-talk. Then,
Wednesday night, 12th September, Supuk got a phone call saying that
I would have been arrested at Ngaresero. Clintons guest, Ingrid, had spent Tuesday
night in Wasso and on Wednesday morning left for Ngaresero. There she was
arrested and returned to Loliondo.
On
Friday, 14th September, Supuk got a phone call summoning him to meet
with the “Afisa Upelelezi wa Wilaya”, which must mean the Officer Commanding
Investigation Division of Ngorongoro District, Marwa Mwita, who’s been leading
the recent intimidation wave to derail the case in the East African Court of
Justice. Supuk arrived at 2pm, but couldn’t meet with those who had called him
for a while, but was directed to phone Clinton and tell him to come as well,
which Supuk did. After three hours Supuk was questioned by the Ngorongoro
Security Committee, and he told them what he knew about Clinton’s guest under
arrest. Clinton arrived and was questioned around 6pm. Thereafter, he was
arrested, and on Saturday morning, 15th September, taken to Arusha
(together with Ingrid).
Supuk
added that all this trouble was about me, Susanna Nordlund, and directed people
to see what I was writing (“Proof that I'm in Sweden today. Stop insanity and
abuse in Loliondo! Release Clinton and Ingrid”, above my photo), while in
Tanzania others are insisting that it’s me. He ends the Facebook post by
calling for the release of Clinton and his friends.
From
Wednesday to Saturday, four nights, Ingrid was arrested at Loliondo police
station. Onesmo Olengurumwa of THRDC wasn’t contacted by someone (who
apparently has limited information) until Friday, and in the news alert from
THRDC it seems like Ingrid was accompanied by two people, but in Supuk’s
Facebook post she’s referred to in singular, except for in the last sentence. I
haven’t been able to get any clarifications, maybe because it’s late, but
nobody has named any other people. Current night temperatures in Loliondo town
are around 12℃ (maybe one or two degrees warmer than
in late June), the windows only have bars and no glass. Those arrested (at
least my experience in 2015) sleep on concrete without any blanket, unless some
night worker brings something after everyone else has left, and the cells are
infested with mosquitos. There’s no lamp, so it’s pitch-dark. Neither is there
any water or toilet, only a bucket. Clinton was there the fourth night, but
probably not in the same cell. At Arusha police station (2015 conditions) the
cells are warmer and those arrested are lent some old clothes to cover
themselves. There’s harsh light the whole night, and there’s water and a
toilet. Clinton and Ingrid are spending this night there, and probably also tomorrow
night. Clinton's bride is alone on her honeymoon.
Photo taken without asking from the Facebook timeline of a relative of the bride. He's silent and probably also sleeping. |
In
2016, Clinton was arrested for ten nights at Loliondo police station. The only
reason that this happened was because he had visited me when I was in Kenya. Unlike
the cases of others who were arrested in the same intimidation wave, I hardly
think anyone would otherwise have thought of targeting him. Before the arrest
Manyerere Jackton emailed me saying, “Finally
you will know who’s the worst journalist and who’s the worst mzungu”. Supuk,
and the NGO coordinator Samwel Nangiria joined him for a very long and totally
illegal and arbitrary arrest. Other people, like the chairmen of Mondorosi and
Kirtalo, and the councillor of Ololosokwan were arrested for a shorter while. A
special task force from Dar es Salaam came to Loliondo for the interrogations,
and it later transpired that Samwel and Supuk were badly beaten during the
interrogations. Bail wasn’t granted until advocate Shilinde Ngalula was himself
arrested in full court attire, Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition filed
a habeas corpus application, lawyers in Arusha held a manifestation and the
Tanganyika Law Society issued a statement. Later was Maanda Ngoitiko of
Pastoral Women’s Council, when summoned to Arusha Police Station to collect her
passport, arrested illegally for three nights, taken to Loliondo, and added to
the rather bizarre espionage and sabotage charges based on the accusation of
having been in contact with me. Samwel and Supuk were also charged with being
in possession of “government documents” (not classified, but “government”), and
Clinton was as well charged with having talked about a “stupid government”. On
22 December 2016 60 days had passed since the last extension, and the plan was
to file for dismissal, but as the magistrate chamber was full of police with
handcuffs ready for re-arrest upon dismissal, the defence agreed to postpone
until 19 January 2017 so that the prosecution could get more time for
“investigation”. On 22 February 2017, the judge dismissed the case since it
couldn’t go on forever and the prosecution had more than enough time to prepare
something coherent. Then followed a very swift re-arrest and the victims of
malicious prosecution had to report at Loliondo police station every Friday for
months, until that was finally stopped, while the Office of the Public
Prosecutor continued its “investigation”, the result of which has still not
been revealed. Many people in Loliondo became very silent, and with the
intimidation wave that started in May this year the silence became almost total.
The people that were maliciously prosecuted in 2016 weren’t those that had
shared most information with me, and some hadn’t even communicated for years,
but that was not of interest to those who just wanted to silence anyone who
could speak up about land grabbing investors.
If
there are new readers who wonder what I am doing, it can all be seen here in this
blog. I search for information about the land threats in Loliondo and share the
information here. I suppose I’m used to build up a threating image of a dangerous
foreigner. Another strategy is to accuse the Maasai of Loliondo of being “Kenyan”.
The
Loliondo Maasai used to be somewhat organized and have stopped several attempts
at alienating 1,500 km2 of grazing land that Otterlo Business Corporation that
organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai has lobbied the Tanzanian government
to turn into a “protected area”. The current silence and fear is the greatest threat
ever. This evil spell must be broken, starting with demanding the immediate release
of Clinton and Ingrid.
Update 16/9: THRDC named the orphanage Ingrid is working for as Upendo Orphanage Centre, which could be correct. There are however many orphanages called Upendo. I sent messages to some of them. Upendo Face Orphanage got a phone call from the Loliondo police, but said that they didn't know Ingrid, which could have complicated things.
Update 16/9: THRDC named the orphanage Ingrid is working for as Upendo Orphanage Centre, which could be correct. There are however many orphanages called Upendo. I sent messages to some of them. Upendo Face Orphanage got a phone call from the Loliondo police, but said that they didn't know Ingrid, which could have complicated things.
Update 17/9:
Clinton and Ingrid were released today, without charges.
Update 18/9: the Jamhuri published another delirious article claiming that Ingrid was arrested for "espionage". I'm yet to get hold of a photo that's readable.
Update 18/9: the Jamhuri published another delirious article claiming that Ingrid was arrested for "espionage". I'm yet to get hold of a photo that's readable.
Update 20/9: there was a soberer article in the
Guardian (TZ). Arusha regional police commander, Ramadhani Ng’anzi, claimed
that police and immigration officers had a duty to act swiftly and decisively
when receiving a tip-off. No, they don’t… The insanity of the servants of
investors in Loliondo has been known for a long time, and nobody has a duty to
uphold their police state. Quite the contrary. He also claimed a “striking
similarity”. No, I’ve googled this Belgian lady and the only similarity is
being white and middle aged.
Susanna
Nordlund
Summary of developments of the past
decades
All
land in Loliondo is village land per Village Land Act No.5 of 1999, and more
than the whole of Loliondo is also a Game Controlled Area (of the old kind that
doesn’t affect human activities and can overlap with village land) where OBC
has the hunting block. Stan Katabalo – maybe Tanzania’s last investigative
journalist - reported about how this hunting block was acquired in the early
90s. By 2018 there does no longer seem to be journalists of any kind.
In 2007-2008 the affected villages were
threatened into signing a Memorandum of Understanding with OBC.
In
the drought year 2009 the Field Force Unit and OBC extrajudicially evicted
people and cattle from some 1,500 km2 of dry season grazing land that serve as
the core hunting area next to Serengeti National Park. Hundreds of houses were
burned, and thousands of cattle were chased into an extreme drought area which
did not have enough food or water to sustain them. 7-year old Nashipai Gume was
lost in the chaos and has not been found, ever since.
People eventually moved back, and some leaders
started participating in reconciliation ceremonies with OBC.
Soon
enough, in 2010-2011, OBC totally funded a draft district land use plan that
proposed turning the 1,500 km2 into the new kind of Game Controlled Area that’s
a “protected” (not from hunting) area and can’t overlap with village land. This
plan, that would have allowed a more “legal” repeat of 2009, was strongly
rejected by Ngorongoro District Council.
In
2013, then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Khamis Kagasheki, made
bizarre statements as if all village land in Loliondo would have disappeared
through magic, and the people of Loliondo would be generously “gifted” with the
land outside the 1,500 km2. This was nothing but a horribly twisted way of
again trying to evict the Maasai landowners from OBC’s core hunting area.
There’s of course no way a Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism would
have the mandate for such a trick of magic. After many mass meetings – where
there was agreement to never again enter any MoU with OBC - and protest
delegations to Dar es Salaam and Dodoma, the then Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda
in a speech on 23rd September the same year revoked Kagasheki’s threat and told
the Maasai to continue their lives as before this threat that through the loss
of dry season grazing land would have led to the destruction of livelihoods,
environmental degradation and increased conflict with neighbours.
Parts
of the press – foremost Manyerere Jackton in the Jamhuri – increased their
incitement against the Maasai of Loliondo as destructive, “Kenyan” and governed
by corrupt NGOs. OBC’s “friends” in Loliondo became more active in the
harassment of those speaking up against the “investors”, even though they
themselves don’t want the GCA 2009, and rely on others, the same people they
persecute, to stop it…
Speaking
up against OBC (and against Thomson Safaris, the American tour operator
claiming ownership of 12,617 acres, and that shares the same friends as OBC)
had always been risky, but the witch-hunt intensified with mass arrests in July
2016. Four people were charged with a truly demented “espionage and sabotage”
case. Manyerere Jackton has openly boasted about his direct involvement in the
illegal arrests of innocent people for the sake of intimidation.
In
July 2016, Manyeree Jackton wrote an “article” calling for PM Majaliwa to
return the Kagasheki-style threat. In November 2016 OBC sent out a “report” to
the press calling for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to
intervene against the destructive Maasai. In mid-December 2016, the Arusha RC
Mrisho Gambo was tasked by the PM with setting up a committee to “solve the
conflict”, and on 25th January 2017 the Minister for Natural Resources and
Tourism, in the middle of the drought stricken Osero, flanked by the most
OBC-devoted journalists, and ignoring the ongoing talks, made a declaration
that the land had to be taken before the end of March. In March 2017 Minister
Maghembe co-opted a
Parliamentary
Standing Committee, and then Loliondo leaders’ “only ally”, RC Gambo’s,
committee started marking “critical areas” while being met with protests in
every village. German development money that the standing committee had been
told was subject to the alienation of the 1,500 km2 was – after protests by 600
women – not signed by the district chairman. On 21st March a compromise
proposal for a WMA (that had been rejected in Loliondo for a decade and a half)
was reached through voting by the RC’s committee, then handed over to PM
Majaliwa on 20th April, and a long wait to hear the PM’s decision started.
While
still waiting, on 13th August 2017 an unexpected illegal eviction and arson
operation was initiated in the Oloosek area of Ololosokwan and then continued
all the way to Piyaya. Beatings, arrests of the victims, illegal seizing of
cows, and blocking of water sources followed. Women were raped by the rangers.
Many leaders stayed strangely and disappointingly silent.
The
DC and the Ministry of Natural Resources explained the illegal operation with
that people and cattle were entering Serengeti National Park too easily, while
Minister Maghembe lied that the land was already the “protected area” wanted by
OBC and others.
There
was an interim stop order by the government organ Commission for Human Rights
and Good Governance (CHRAGG), but the crimes continued unabated.
A
case was filed by four villages in the East African Court of Justice on 21st
September.
When
in Arusha on 23rd September, President Magufuli collected protest placards
against Maghembe, OBC and abuse, to read them later.
On
5th October the Kenyan opposition leader, Raila Odinga, (who had met with
people from Loliondo) told supporters that his friend Magufuli had promised him
that all involved in the illegal operation in Loliondo would be fired.
In
a cabinet reshuffle on 7th October Maghembe was removed and Hamisi Kigwangalla
appointed as new minister of Natural Resources and Tourism.
Kigwangalla
stopped the operation on 26th October, and then made it clear that OBC’s
hunting block would not be renewed, which he had already mentioned in Dodoma on
the 22nd. On 5th November, he fired the
Director of Wildlife and announced that rangers at Klein’s gate that had been
colluding with the investor would be transferred. Kigwangalla emphasized that
OBC would have left before January. He talked about the corruption syndicate at
their service, reaching into his own ministry, and claimed that OBC’s director,
Mollel, wanted to bribe him, and would be investigated for corruption. However,
OBC never showed any signs of leaving.
Kigwangalla
announced in social media that he on 13th November received a delegation headed
by the German ambassador and that the Germans were going to fund community
development projects in Loliondo, “in our quest to save the Serengeti”. Alarm
was raised in Loliondo that the district chairman would have signed secretly,
which some already had suspected.
On
6th December, PM Majaliwa announced a vague, but terrifying decision to form a
“special authority” to manage the 1,500 km2 osero. He also said that OBC would
stay. Manyerere Jackton celebrated the decision in the Jamhuri newspaper.
Further information and implementation of this “special authority” has
fortunately been delayed, even if it was mentioned in Kigwangalla’s budget
speech on 21st May.
Sheikh
Mohammed, his crown prince, and other royal guests visited Loliondo in March
2018, and Kigwangalla welcomed them on Twitter. Earlier, in restricted access
social media, Kigwangalla had been saying that OBC weren’t a problem, but only
the director, Mollel, and that Loliondo, with the “new structure” needed more
investors of the kind.
An
ambitious report about Loliondo and NCA, with massive media coverage (and some
unnecessary mistakes) was released by the Oakland Institute on 10th May 2018,
and Kigwangalla responded by denying that any abuse had ever taken place, and
threatening anyone involved with the report. He went as far as denying the
existence of people in Loliondo GCA.
Currently
there’s an intimidation campaign against the applicants in the case in the East
African Court of Justice, and silence is worse than ever.
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