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DEFENDING LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS

Benet: Uganda’s stateless people

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3 years ago

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Kapchewuut cave in Benet Sub-County in Kween District still acts as a home for some of the evicted people who were evicted 13 years ago from their ancestral home.

Kampala, Uganda. The Ugandan government must recognise the Benet as the indigenous inhabitants of the forest from which it evicted them and restore them to their ancient home.

Amnesty International, the London-based international human rights NGO made the demand in a report titled, ‘13 Years in Limbo: Forced Evictions of the Benet in the Name of Conservation,’ that it launched on Nov.08.

“The treatment of the Benet is a flagrant violation of Uganda’s constitution and its own international human rights obligations,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa during the release of the report.

This is the latest call for the restoration of the rights of the Benet, a community of an estimated 18,000 people who lost their ancestral land in Mount Elgon area of Sebei in eastern Uganda in 1920 when the British colonial protectorate classified the moorland and grasslands as a forest reserve.

Subsequent governments have piled violations on the minority group, including violent forced evictions since 1983, further deepening the plight and poverty of this community. Amnesty International says the Benet face a multi-generational struggle.

The Benet is one of Uganda’s indigenous ethnic minority groups who have been deprived of their right to health, adequate housing and education, it said.

“They are still living in temporary settlements made of flimsy huts of mud and stick, deprived of essential services such as clean drinking water and electricity and cut off from healthcare and education,” said Muchena.

Perhaps the most brutal evictions happened on Feb.16 in 2008 when 178 families were rendered homeless.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority and the national army—the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF)—forcefully evicted the families claiming they were still settled inside the national park despite government allocating the same land to them after previous evictions.

People’s houses and crops were destroyed, cattle were confiscated. The displaced Benet found shelter wherever they could: in caves and under trees. The luckier ones stayed in a nearby primary school or joined relatives elsewhere.

David Chemutai, the current coordinator of the Benet-Mosop Indigenous Community Association, a community based organisation in Kween District in eastern Uganda still remembers the 2008 evictions.

“I came back home from school only to find our home burnt. All the houses in the homestead were burnt,” he told The Independent on Nov.10, “Our food which we used to keep in the house was also burnt. My parents were gone and I did not know where to find them.”

Chemutai who was 23 at the time was only able to find his parents days later in a cave. Over a decade later, hundreds of families of the Benet community still live in temporary resettlement sites. Some still live in the cave.

They accuse UWA of killings, unlawful use of force and firearms, including shootings, beatings, and even crimes under international law, including torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. This often happens when they try to enter the forest which was declared a national park in 1993.

In 2004, the Uganda Land Alliance (ULA) filed a legal suit, Uganda Land Alliance, Ltd. v. Uganda Wildlife Authority in the High Court of Uganda on behalf of the Benet community, for enforcement of their right to use their forest land.

On 27 October 2005, the court in a judgment commonly referred to as the “Consent Judgment”, which was settled and agreed to by the affected Benet community, the UWA, and the Attorney General of Uganda, recognised the Benet as the historical and indigenous inhabitants of the forest that the government had classified a national park in 1993.

The judgment underlined the need to “redress the imbalance” facing the Benet in education, infrastructure, health, and social services, provided for under Article 32 of Uganda’s Constitution.

Despite the court ruling, the Benet are still not permitted to build permanent structures and live in small huts constructed from sticks and mud in temporary resettlement camps, with no electricity and potable water.

The restriction has impacted the Benet peoples’ agro-pastoral lifestyle and other economic, social, and cultural practices such as the right to access cultural sites for rituals, fruit gathering, bee keeping, and hunting.

“We are now a stateless community,” says Chemutai, “This is something we are still fighting for.”

The Uganda Wildlife Authority insists it is not to blame for the fate of the Benet.

“We are not responsible for the gazettement and degazettement of these places. The Uganda Wildlife Authority only manages these spaces,” Bashir Hangi, the UWA public relations officer,told The Independent on Nov.10, “Regardless whether they were evicted or not, when the government handed over the area to us, we had no alternative but remove the people.”

But Amnesty International’s Muchena says academic research says conservation, such as by UWA, works best when the state works with the indigenous people as equal partners in conservation.

“It must not result in human rights violations, or be used to justify them,” he said.

Original Source: independent.co.ug

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DEFENDING LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS

A bail application for the 15 EACOP activists failed to take off, and they were remanded back to Prison.

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6 days ago

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November 26, 2024

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By Witness Radio team.

A bail application for the 15 EACOP activists from Kyambogo and Makerere University Business School (MUBS) Universities currently on remand on charges of common nuisance has failed to take off today.

Simon Peter Wafula, Gary Wettaka, Martin Sserwambala, Erick Ssekandi, Arafat Mawanda, Akram Katende, Dedo Sean Kevin, Noah Katiti, Oscar Nuwagaba, Oundo Hamphrance, Bernard Mutenyo, Nicholas Pele, Shadiah Nabukenya, Shafiq Kalyango, and Makose Mark, who were arrested in early this month (November) for their determined protest against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) in Kampala, Uganda’s capital.

They were marching to Uganda’s Parliament to meet the Speaker of Parliament and raise concerns about the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project, including the continued gross human rights violations/abuses, the significant threat it poses to the environment, and the criminalization of the mega project’s critics.

The EACOP project will transport crude oil from Uganda’s Albertine region to Tanzania’s Tanga seaport. The project has been criticized for delayed compensation for affected persons and secretive agreements.

However, the two accused, Wafula Simon and Kalyango Shafik, did not attend court. The prosecution informed the court that the duo was sick, suffering from red eyes, and currently being kept in an isolation room in the prison hospital. The absence of the two caused a setback to the defense lawyers’ bail application attempt.

On November 11, the accused were charged with common nuisance. Section 160 (1) of the Penal Code Act states that if convicted, anyone charged with common nuisance is liable to one-year imprisonment.

The prosecution alleges that on November 11, 2024, the accused gathered at Parliamentary Avenue, causing disruption and inconvenience by holding an unauthorized demonstration on the road while displaying placards and banners opposing the oil pipeline.

Grade One magistrate Sanula Nambozo adjourned the case until December 9, 2024, when the defense team is expected to present a bail application for the 15 activists.

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DEFENDING LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS

Breaking: 15 Anti-EACOP Activists have been charged with common nuisance and remanded to Luzira prison.

Published

3 weeks ago

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November 13, 2024

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By Witness Radio team.

A group of 15 anti-EACOP protesters from Kyambogo and Makerere University Business School (Mubs) Universities was arrested on Monday, 11th, for protesting against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project. They have been arraigned before Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court and charged with common nuisance.

Fourteen of them were students from Kyambogo University including Simon Peter Wafula, Gary Wettaka, Martin Sserwambala, Erick Ssekandi, Arafat Mawanda, Akram Katende, Dedo Sean Kevin, Noah Katiti, Oscar Nuwagaba, Oundo Hamphrance, Bernard Mutenyo, Nicholas Pele, Shadiah Nabukenya, Shafiq Kalyango, and Makose Mark from Makerere University Business School (MUBS). Grade one magistrate Sanula Nambozo remanded them.

Section 160 (1) of the Penal Code Act states that any person charged with common nuisance, once convicted, is liable to imprisonment for one year.

Police arrested them while marching toward Uganda’s Parliament to meet the Speaker of Parliament and raise concerns about the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project, including the gross human rights abuses and the significant threat it poses to the environment.

This case is part of ongoing protests against the $3.5 billion EACOP project, which will transport crude oil from Uganda’s Albertine region to Tanzania’s Tanga seaport. The project has faced criticism over delayed compensations for affected persons and secretive agreements. Despite a European Union resolution against the pipeline, President Yoweri Museveni has insisted it will proceed as planned.

The prosecution alleges that on November 11, 2024, the accused gathered at Parliamentary Avenue, causing disruption and inconvenience by holding an unauthorized demonstration on the road while displaying placards and banners opposing the oil pipeline.

The 15 activists have been remanded to Luzira Prison until November 26, when their lawyers could apply for bail.

 

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DEFENDING LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS

Breaking: 15 Anti-EACOP Activists Arrested in Kampala While Marching to Parliament

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3 weeks ago

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November 11, 2024

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By Witness Radio team

Kampala, Uganda – A group of 15 anti-EACOP protesters from Kyambogo University have been arrested in Kampala, Uganda’s capital by police while marching toward the Ugandan Parliament, Witness Radio has learned.

The activists, dressed in orange T-shirts bearing the slogan “No to Oil” and chanting “Stop EACOP,” were arrested by Police at Parliamentary Avenue at approximately 10 a.m. EAT this morning. They wanted to meet the Speaker of Parliament to raise concerns about the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project.

The protesters claim that the EACOP project has led to severe human rights abuses and poses a significant threat to the environment.

Their arrest comes just hours after the start of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29), hosted by the Government of Azerbaijan, officially begins today, Monday, 11 November, and runs through Friday, 22 November 2024. It aims to build on previous achievements and set a foundation for future climate ambitions to address the global climate crisis.

Uganda, represented at COP29, hopes to use this opportunity to obtain funds for projects related to resilience and adaptation. However, campaigners contend that rather than speaking for Ugandans negatively impacted by climate change, the delegates will emphasize securing financing for environmentally damaging initiatives like EACOP.

Activists are being detained at the Central Police Station in Kampala.

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Photo Credit: PhotoRebel
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