Thousands of Burundians have returned home after years of refugee life in Tanzania, but finding shelter and enough land to farm remains a challenge.

"Fifteen percent of long-term returnees repatriated this year are landless," said Léon Ndikunkiko, spokesman for the Ministry of National Solidarity, National Reconstruction, Human Rights and Gender.

In mid-August, some 1,200 returnees were stranded in Makamba Province, waiting to be resettled. By October, only 200 had been resettled in Gitara by the government, while the others were still waiting in temporary sites, according to Ndikunkiko.

About 450,000 Burundians have been repatriated from Tanzania with the help of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), since 2002. This year, the numbers increased after the Tanzanian government decided to close the camps by December.

By mid-September, some 75,000 had returned to Burundi, including 17,392 long-term refugees. While some had been away since 1972, others had never seen their homeland, having been born in exile or left as children.

Many, however, have come back to find their houses destroyed or occupied by other people.

"Local administration officials have been instructed to allocate [returnees] a 50m x 50m space to build a house regardless of the availability of his [or her] land," Ndikunkiko. "However, this is not always the case since those who stayed on the land sometimes refuse."

Finding land to resettle the returnees is a big concern for the government. "The Ministry of Land Management has to identify the land and puts it at the disposal of the Ministry of National Solidarity," he explained. "It is a long process which takes time and this delays the resettlement of returnees."

A survey conducted by the National Land Commission in December to identify available land or land belonging to the state in the hands of individuals, found that just 4,500 people, mostly returnees, had been resettled.

In situations where they have somewhere to go, the returnees are being offered building materials - although there are often delays depending on the period of repatriation. For example, returnees arriving in October have to wait until June to benefit from the shelter project.

As they wait, the returnees rely on relatives. Others are supported by UNHCR, which constructs temporary shelters for them.

Land disputes

While efforts are being made to address the problem of shelter, land remains a crucial challenge. "Even those who have their land are not resettled immediately," Ndikunkiko said. Land, he added, had become too scarce to accommodate Burundi's increasing population.

Frequent land disputes were now the reason for crime. Local radio stations reported on 23 August that a man blasted a grenade at a wedding ceremony, killing 15 people and injuring more than 60.

On 29 September, a grenade was thrown through a window of a house in the northern Ngozi Province, killing a man and his wife, leaving a baby. Preliminary investigations blamed land disputes.
Michel Nintije, a sociologist who was part of a team that conducted a study on land tenure and alternative solutions in September, has suggested that Burundi prepare a nationwide programme of sensitisation on the land issue.

Nestor Niyonkuru, information officer at the national commission on land and other properties (CNTB), said many of the disputes involved returnees and current occupants of the land.

CNTB was set up in 2006 to assist returnees and other landless people recover their land or other lost properties. As at 4 October, it had registered 11,200 land disputes and solved 2,279.

The government, in an attempt to cater for landless returnees, internally displaced persons and other vulnerable people, has also embarked on building villages in some provinces, each housing 250 families.

However, much more needs to be done. According to UNHCR, 80 percent of returnees have no access to land. Worse still, most of them come from the provinces of Makamba, Rutana and Bururi where pressure on land is high.

For its part, the government pleads inadequate resources for full resettlement and reintegration of the returnees.

"If you resettle the returnees and they have no water, no health-centre nearby, it is not viable," Ndikunkiko said.

IRIN 

The Lone Stars of Liberia are expected to jet into Banjul today ahead of their fifth appearance in the 2010 world and African Cup of Nations qualifiers billed for Saturday at the Independence Stadium in Banjul.

The group six fixtures are expected to be a tough weekend as the top three teams Senegal with 8 points, Algeria with 6 and The Gambia with 5 are poised to book their place in the next stage.

A great task awaits The Gambia in booking its first qualification to the World and international competitions.

Occupying the third spot in the group with five points, a win in Banjul will surely increase their chances of making it. But they will have to count on fellow group members Senegal and Algeria who will also be meeting over the weekend in Algiers to draw.

Despite occupying the bottom position in the group and with an unlikely chance of proceeding to the next stage, Liberia, under the guidance of former Scorpions Coach Antoine Hey, are equally determined to win the game in Banjul.

Seedy MB Kinteh President of The Gambia Football Association, while speaking to Pointsports, said the team will arrive today and all is set for the game on Saturday.

He said the match officials will arrive from Libya and the match commissioner is Egyptian.

Tickets will be on sale at D1000, D150 and D100 for the VIP, Covered and Uncovered Pavilions respectively.

The Governor of the North Bank Region, Edward Seckan, has told The Point that the North Bank Region will the first to answer President Jammeh’s call to go back to the land. Governor Seckan disclosed that his region is cultivating 30 farms for President Jammeh with a variety of crops being grown including coose, millet, sesame and beans.

According to Governor Seckan, the proceeds from the farm will go back into the community and benefit needy people. He added that farming for the president is not a waste of time and called on all Gambians to get involved and answer the presidents call to go back to the land by farming their own farms. “Considering all the development President Jammeh has brought to the North Bank Region in the last 14 years the people of the region should feel it necessary to give the president their support,” he said. He finally told The Point that the president’s plan can ensure we have enough food to feed our families.

Apathy towards farming has always been associated with individuals’ reluctance to cultivate the land. But the campaign being spearheaded by President Jammeh has evidently  changed the face of the whole situation to a great extent.

Along the line, it has become clear that in fact, there is more to the problem than just attitude. Let us assume that 14 years back Gambians were not willing to till the land. Today, however, the enthusiasm is unequivocally tremendous. It makes the long term outlook of living in The Gambia pretty much promising.

However, it must be borne in mind that the realistic attainment of this promising prospect, demands that we maintain the momentum. Of course, the political will, which should serve as an overall motivating factor, actually does exist; we only have to pray that it remains with us for the next, say, five decades.

But the complexity of the system demands that permanent structures are in place if subsequent generations of Gambians would appreciate whatever we will be passing down to them. All this demands a massive investment by this generation; investment not only in terms of effort, but also in terms of agricultural infrastructural development.

Despite all the steps we have taken, we will not get anywhere or our explicitly genuine efforts won’t have any meaningful impact if we do not put in place the right mechanisms that would ensure sustenance of the practice. As a matter of fact, sustenance of a productive agricultural sector would require total commercialisation, and in this case, the intervention of the private sector would be paramount to that effect.

The private sector has an epic role to play here. Apart from provision of the resources, marketing, which forms a core factor in any sustainable business venture,  is a domain the private sector can help in. The call by the secretary of state for Trade, Industry an Employment was indeed quite well placed in this regard.

A prudent approach to this noble suggestion of his would not only ensure a sure and sustainable food supply, but will also make room for employment opportunities, as such an intervention has the potential to revolutionize the sector.

The Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation (SSHFC) and Ocean Bay Hotel and Resort, on Saturday, the 16 of August, 2008, responded to the president’s “back to the land and help feed the nation” call.

The management and staff of both institutions responded in large numbers. They gave their full support to the president on his farm.

Kanilai is a national treasure and I will urge every Gambian to try and go to Kanilai to see what hard work, determination and pragmatism can achieve. Going to Kanilai in a nut shell will give the individual the following: It gives the Gambian undiluted aim and ambition.

It will teach the individual to try and live a meaningful life and remind the person  that this life is for a reason and one must be determined in life.

The response of SSHFC and Ocean Bay to the president’s call will help in national development. Their show of solidarity and work on the farm will contribute in increasing the output of the president’s farms and orchards which translates into more food for the nation, more scholarships and more resources for the President’s Medical Research and Cure.

I love what I saw at Kanilai. The farms, the orchards, the buildings, the parks, the villagers,  the drums and Jola dances and also the food. President Jammeh is the best thing to happen to The Gambia since independence.

I will advise all Gambians to look up to  President Jammeh and join hands with him to develop this nation as he has the purpose, the drive, the ambition and pragmatism. We have a God-sent president who is willing and able to make this country a model country for the rest of  Africa. Long live President Jammeh, long live The Gambian and long live all men of goodwill, purpose and pragmatism. Amen!!

Although he looks frail, Cossan Ntabwigwa, in his late 60s, is a determined man. He recently returned from Tanzania, where he had been a refugee since 1972, and is seeking to resettle on a piece of land he left years ago.

Despite finding someone else occupying the land, Ntabwigwa is determined to reclaim it, and he says sharing it with the current occupant is out of the question.

"I left two other brothers there [in Tanzania] who are married and with children and who must also get a share of this land," he said.

When he repatriated from Gatumba settlement in Tanzania at the beginning of August, Ntabwigwa, who heads a 10-member family, spent three days at the commune headquarters in Nyanzalac, Makamba province, waiting to go home.

Like most Burundians, Ntabwigwa's strong attachment to land means he is unwilling to share his piece of land with the current occupant, whom he considers an outsider since he is not a family member.

Also in Nyanzalac, Alexis Anthony Kifumu, his wife and six children, have been squatting at an elementary school for two weeks. He returned to Burundi to find part of his land occupied by the school while a businessman had used another portion to put up a pub and a shop.

Local administrative officials advised Kifumu to use the remaining 30 metres to build himself a house.

"I have started making bricks, I think it will take me 14 days to get them ready and if I build a house, I will try to work and live as best as I can while waiting for my case to be settled," he said.

Sharing land

Although Kifumu calmly accepted the situation, in line with his Christian faith, he seemed disillusioned.

"I am surprised to find that I am not even authorised to use a classroom while waiting to build my house; when there is a disaster, people seek shelter in schools yet they have no pity for us," Kifumu said.
In March, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, launched a repatriation operation for up to 46,000 "old caseload" refugees from the Tanzanian old settlements of Katumba, Mishamo and Ulyankulu.

According to a UNHCR factsheet for July, 11,020 of the returnees in 2008, estimated at 59,877, are refugees from the 1972 caseload.

While returnees who fled the country in 1993 find it slightly easier to resettle, the case is not the same for the 1972 caseload, as exemplified by the cases of Ntabwigwa and Kifumu, for whom disputes over land ownership can at times take long to resolve.

Indeed, the complex problem of land remains a major challenge to the reintegration of returnees. Not only do many, if not all returnees have a land-dispute related story to tell, but land has become a scarce commodity.

Bernard Ntagumuka, an advisor of the administrator at the commune of Nyanzalac, said the number of returnees who have resettled was insignificant compared to the number of returnees who find their land occupied by others, "either legally or illegally".

"Others [returnees] find that the government used them [their land] for social infrastructure; take the urban centre of Nyanzalac for instance, it was built on people's land," Ntagumuka said.

Ownership hitches

In other instances, returnees find their land has been resold and divided to the extent that reclaiming it becomes difficult since it has passed from one owner to another. In some cases, refugees returned home, sold their land and went back to Tanzania.

When civil war broke out in Burundi 1972, thousands of Burundians fled to neighbouring countries, leaving their property behind and their lands vacant. In many regions of Burundi, especially the southern provinces of Bururi and Makamba, the then government encouraged people from other regions to occupy the land.

Nestor Niyonkuru, an information officer for the Commission on Land and Other Properties, said: "Logic would dictate that the new occupant vacates the land and return it to the owner, but it is not as simple as it seems.

"Some were given title deeds to the land, others have exploited it for more than 30 years and under Burundian law, this entitles them to the land; others have lived on the land for generations and simply have nowhere to go."

Complicity by past governments

With the increasing number of returnees, land disputes have increased sharply. In the past, the different governments that have controlled the country did not settle the land issue comprehensively, sometimes even complicating the situation. Some government and army officials were allocated title deeds for houses and land left by those who fled the civil war, especially in the southern regions, which are rich in oil-bearing palms.

William Hamenyimana, who fled Burundi in 1972, returned in the 1980s to find his land in Rumonge, Bururi province, occupied.

"My land was given to a senior army officer, when I returned home, I was forced out; I had left a whole plantation of palm oil but I accepted [not to claim it] just to save my life and was given another piece of land in Nyanzalac," he said. "Now that the owner of this land is back, they are telling me to share the small piece with him or leave it, if the occupant of my [original] land leaves, then I will leave this one."

Hamenyimana said while they were in Tanzania, they were made to believe that they would reclaim their land.

"Now they come and force us out overnight, that is not the way it should be done," he said.

Such actions build anger in people who were forced out of their land for one reason or another and who now have to share or to be moved once again.

Ntagumuka said local administrative officials handle about 10 cases of land dispute daily but they are often overwhelmed, with no solution at hand.

"We only sensitise them telling them to share land whenever possible but it is not always easy," Ntagumuka said.

According to Niyonkuru, one third of land disputes in the country ere presently registered in the provinces of Bururi and Makamba, the two areas to which most of the 1972 refugees are returning.

However, some of the returnees and those internally displaced prefer to avoid confrontation and simply share the land. Niyonkuru said by June 2008, some 657 cases of land disputes had been settled, and 394 of them did not require the intervention of the land commission, which only endorsed the decisions as the parties signed agreements.

The Burundi government set up the land commission in 2006 to help returnees recover their land and other property lost during the civil war.
The commission was not only intended to lighten the load of law courts overwhelmed by land disputes but to also simplify the procedures and spare the returnees the delays and costs.

However, the commission does not have the power of a court and only mediates between the parties. If it fails, the parties still have to go to court.

Since its creation, the commission has registered 10,541 cases, but only 657 had been settled as at June 2008, prompting criticism from human rights activists.

"If the land issue is not dealt with adequately, it can be the source of potential violence," Joseph Ndayizeye, the deputy chairman of the Human Rights League in the Great Lakes Region, said at a press conference in August.

Ndayizeye proposed the creation of a specialised court to deal with land disputes, saying it seems the commission's competence was limited.

A survey conducted by the commission in December 2007 found more than 34,000 hectares of land belonging to the state in the hands of individuals who appropriated or received the land from local chiefs illegally.

Human rights activists say if such land was to revert to state ownership, then perhaps the landless, including returnees, could be resettled.

IRIN 

World day highlights fundamental role of indigenous peoples in food security

Increasingly tough climatic conditions and limited rights to land and other basic resources risk jeopardizing the lives and livelihoods of many indigenous groups that hold the key to our long term survival, FAO noted today on the eve of the International Day for the World’s Indigenous Peoples.

“Indigenous peoples are among the first to suffer from increasingly harsh and erratic weather conditions, and a generalized lack of empowerment to claim goods and services to which other population groups have greater access,” said Regina Laub, FAO focal point for Indigenous Peoples.

A number of indigenous groups make their living within vulnerable environments -- in mountainous areas, in the Arctic, in jungles or in dry lands -- and are thus often the first to discern and suffer the effects of climate change.

However, the indigenous are not just victims of global warming; they also have a critical role to play in supporting global adaptation to climate change. In Peru, for example, during the last planting season only those potatoes planted in the traditional way survived the unprecedented extreme frost temperature.

Indigenous communities are often the custodians of unique knowledge and skills and the genetic and biological diversity in plant and animal production that may be vital in adapting to climate change. Approximately 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity is found within indigenous peoples’ territories.

Currently there are an estimated 370 million indigenous peoples representing at least 5 000 different indigenous groups in more than 70 countries. The Amazon basin alone is home to about 400 different indigenous groups. Defending the recovery of ancestral lands, the self-determination of indigenous peoples and their human rights is at the core of their claims.

Indigenous peoples are often among the most marginalized, showing higher levels of poverty and vulnerability than other population groups in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Land rights

Only a few countries have recognized ancestral and customary rights to land, a cornerstone of the livelihoods of indigenous peoples. Lack of political will and the lack of legal recognition of indigenous rights in national legal frameworks and tenure regimes, different forms of discrimination and inappropriate policies towards indigenous peoples are limiting indigenous peoples’ land rights.

Sub-Saharan Africa

As a result of violent conflicts, increased competition, degradation of natural resources and negative effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, land tenure insecurity is growing in Sub-Saharan Africa. This has led to increased vulnerability of rural communities and a high incidence of extreme poverty and hunger.

FAO has developed activities for improving tenure security of the rural poor including indigenous groups in sub-Saharan Africa by giving disadvantaged groups greater control over decisions, particularly over natural resources, improving the legal capacities of rural poor communities to secure land rights. Better awareness and access to legal information, and creating rural institutions and simplified procedures for securing land and resources tenure are other objectives of FAO’s activities. FAO has documented good practices in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa as well as in the Pacific.

FAO  

Says there is No Incentive, No Encouragement

The current catch-phrase exhorting all and sundry to take up farming of some sort, ascribed to the Gambian President, holds no water with Hon. Sidia Jatta, National Assembly Member for Wuli West constituency, who has expressed his belief that though the idea in itself is sound, the lack of encouragement and incentives has made it virtually impossible for people to heed the call.

Contributing to the motion on the adjournment debate at the National Assembly on Tuesday, Hon. Jatta noted that unless the government gave the people the incentive and made them understand that once they produce, they will have value for their produce, going back to the land, as it is often called, is “meaningless.”

According to the Wuli West parliamentarian, Gambian youths are now yearning day and night to go to Europe in search of greener pastures not because they do not want to go back to the land or not because they hate The Gambia but they are doing so because they know that however much they make on those lands, they cannot help solve the problems of their families. “People have problems in marketing their produce, which is also discouraging them from cultivating. There is no incentive and there is no encouragement.

“We have seen people who have gone out of this country and within a year, they have sent thousands and thousands to their families, which has now changed the whole situation of the family,” he added.

In Hon. Jatta’s view, it is not that people are reluctant to till the land but the land is giving nothing and they have to feed their families who are living in abject poverty.

“They don’t have the means in this country to help their parents and families get out of poverty because there is no incentive for them to do that and what they do at the end is to risk their lives because they know once they get out there, they can make something and help their families,” he asserted.

For Hon. Jatta, the average Gambian has no problem with practising agriculture but they know that there are fundamental and critical problems confronting them and have no means of overcoming those problems.

“No body wants to die in poverty, no body wants to see his family die in poverty and if somebody from a particular family in France or any place in Europe is helping his family, I think others will like to be like him and will therefore move,” he pointed.

The Wuli West parliamentarian went further to explain that unless some of these problems are solved, the call for people to go back to the land will be sung from rooftops and nothing will be done.

National Assembly members, on Wednesday, unanimously passed the amended State Land Bill 2008, so as to ensure a more efficient and judicious land administration mechanism. The amended bill is expected to end the alarming rate of land crisis in the country.

The amendment came following the current developments, especially in the housing sector and the demand and pressure on land resources, which has tremendously increased. These phenomena has resulted speculation surrounding land, uncontrolled developments and increasing land disputes. It is in this regard that, the Lands Commission Act was enacted, alongside the amendment of the State Lands Regulations.

According to Ismaila Sambou, the secretary of State for Local Government, Lands and Religious Affairs, the amendment of the State Lands Act, aimed at complementing these efforts in revolutionising the country’s Land Administration System.

He added that the reviewing of the land legislation will also ensure a more efficient and judicious land administration mechanism.

SoS Sambou added that as a result of migration and urbanisation, the demand for housing is significantly increasing in the Greater Banjul Area and its immediate surrounding. “This, together with the need to better manage our land resources, has made it all the more necessary to control land grabbing and speculation. Because of the small size of the country, the availability for land especially for residual purposes is fast decreasing,” he said.

He then stated that consequently, land is virtually becoming more scarce and difficult to access by average Gambians. He then observed that without stringent controls, a significant chunks of lands will slip into foreign hands.

SoS Sambou recalled that the State Lands Act was passed in 1990 and came into effect in 1991. He added: “It was however not until 1994 that lands in the provincial areas, notably Kombo North, South and Central in the Western Region, were declared state lands. The Act provides that when an area is declared state land, deemed lessees should obtain lease for their lands held under customary tenure,” he said, adding that  the amendment provides checks and balances in this process, as they were not provided for in the main Act.

The DoSLGL & RA boss said the process of re-entering allocated land in accordance with the State Lands Act needed to be critically reviewed to reduce the incidence of speculation, leading to un-development of certain allocate lands, alluding to numerous cases, where allottees of legally and justifiably re-entered plots take government to court thereby depriving genuine applicants the opportunity to be allocated.

For Honorable Adama Cham,the NAM for Kombo North, the amendment will ensure a straightforward piece of legislation, which seeks to protect our lands which if were not grabbed, could have been used effectively for agricultural and other development purposes.

He then observed that the bill do not seek to victimise anybody or stop anyone from coming to The Gambia, but to protect the country’s land and landowners.

Hon Netty Baldeh of Tumana and Hon Sedia Jatta of Wuli West, all backed the amendment.

The numerous and seemingly unending land disputes which have been making news in recent times in the country will soon be a thing of the past if the new State Lands Amendment Bill passed by the National Assembly on Wednesday is anything to go by.

The bill, which among other things seeks to review the existing land legislation so as to ensure a more efficient and judicious land administration mechanism, comes on the heels of numerous land dispute cases in recent times. Some, notably the Babylon case, have been the subject of intense proceedings in the courts.

Being one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, The Gambia has and continues to register a high alien population, consequently making land more and more scarce and therefore difficult to be acquired by the average Gambian.

With the demand for housing significantly on the increase in the Greater Banjul Area and its immediate surrounding areas, the new Act, together with the need to better manage land resources, is expected to put forward lasting solutions to land grabbing and speculation.

Putting the motion before Members of the National Assembly, Hon. Ismaila Sambou, the Secretary of State for Local Government, Lands and Religious Affairs, said that without stringent controls, significant chunks of land would end up in foreign ownership.

“It is for this reason that the Department of State for Local Government, Lands and Religious Affairs deems it necessary to review the existing land legislation so as to ensure a more efficient and more judicious land administration mechanism,” he said.

He noted that these amendments seek to provide checks and balances to reduce the incidence of speculation, leading to the non-development of certain allocated lands. “A major problem in this regard are the numerous cases where those allotted legally and justifiably re-entered plots take government to court, thereby depriving applicants the opportunity to be allocated,” he said.

The proposed amendments, according to Secy. Sambou, will therefore make it virtually impossible for government to be unnecessarily dragged to court on issues of re-entry and reallocation.

Seconding the motion, Hon. Adama Cham, member for Kombo North constituency, described the bill as a straightforward piece of legislation which seeks to protect already existing land, lands which if not grabbed, could have been used effectively for agricultural and other development purposes.

“More so, looking at the scenario and what actually happens especially in Kombo North, South and Central, and now even creeping into the provinces, we don’t want to have a situation where you have settler regimes,” he said.

In Hon. Cham’s view, the bill does not seek to victimise anybody or stop anybody from coming to The Gambia but just to protect lands and landowners.