Monday November 23, 2009
Local News

OBC cautions against politicising Loliondo


DAILY NEWS Reporter,

AS a parliamentary standing committee readies itself to investigate reports of human rights abuse in Loliondo, Ortello Business Company (OBC) has smelt a rat and cautioned against politicising the issue.

The OBC is a hunting company with concession rights of the Loliondo Game Controlled Area, where villagers were reportedly forcefully evicted recently.

However, the company has maintained that the villagers were evicted by the government for environmental concerns after encroaching on the controlled area and threatened to turn it into a semi desert due to overgrazing.

“It is unfortunate that the matter is increasingly being blown out of proportion for political and personal interests,” observed OBC’s Executive Director Isaac Mollel in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

Mr Mollel said a number of influential individuals including politicians were out to capitalise on the saga for selfish ends and were dragging the company’s name through the mud out of jealousy because they also had an eye on the hunting block.

He maintained that the OBC, owned by the United Arab Emirates royal family, was operating at Loliondo in accordance with the country’s laws and wondered why the area was always on the spotlight while it is only one of many hunting blocks in the country.

He said the issue was increasingly taking an anti- Arab turn, noting that a number of NGOs received support from the West just to wage a war against OBC.

“The NGOs have made OBC operations their only main issue while there are other pertinent matters such as drought, famine and HIV/AIDS that need immediate attention,” he said, stressing that NGOs were especially to blame for fuelling trouble at the area.

He trashed all claims of possessing the area’s title deed, killing more animals than specified in their licence or transporting live animals to the Middle East and building permanent structures at the controlled area.

He pledged to cooperate with the parliamentary committee on Land, Natural Resources and Environment to ensure the truth was revealed. Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Committee on Land, Natural Resources and Environment begins its investigations today to ascertain if human rights abuse could have taken place during the eviction of the pastoralists in Loliondo.

Speaking to 'Daily News' on phone yesterday, parliamentary committee member, Fuya Kimbita said the committee will today visit the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and the Ministry of State in the Vice-President's Office (Environment).

“We have not been given the full schedule yet but tomorrow (today) we will be visiting the two ministries for more information on the Loliondo issue,” Mr Kimbita said.

The committee will then travel to Loliondo tomorrow where they will meet with different stakeholders on the matter including Arusha Regional Commissioner’s team, the District Commissioners' team in the affected districts to get their side of story.

The committee will also meet with Non Governmental Organisations before meeting with OBC and the eight affected villages in the Loliondo Game Controlled Area.