ZAMBIA: Land and mineral rights in conflict
MANSA, 30 August 2010 (IRIN): Mining prospectors in Luapula Province, northern Zambia, have forced small-scale farmers from their land at gun point, according to villagers in the region.
– We have a lot of battles going on over land; people’s right to land is being violated by manganese miners, time and again, said Ignatius Musenge of the Zambia Land Alliance, a land rights NGO based in Mansa, the provincial capital.
Luapula Province borders the mineral-rich Katanga region of DR Congo, and has deposits of manganese, cobalt, citrine and copper; some reports claim there are also deposits of diamonds, uranium, gold and tin.
– We are handling about 20 complaints per week on average, and so far we have had more than 500 people evicted since 2009 in various parts of Mansa as a result of manganese mining, Musenge told IRIN.
People forced from their land have been given no compensation or alternative land.
– They (prospectors) are chasing us from our own land, Peter Mwila told IRIN, adding:
– Is this country just for the rich? The chief (traditional ruler) gave me a 10-hectare piece of land many years ago, where I have been farming. But early this year someone came and chased me with a gun, saying I was farming on his mining area, and I am now living with my uncle in the next village.
President Rupiah Banda’s government has permitted exploration to gauge the extent of the province’s mineral deposits, and has allowed small-scale mining activities, but residents claim that once mineral deposits are discovered they are evicted from their land.
Lister Zimba, who was “chased from her land” in Mansa district in May 2010, told IRIN:
– The only thing I have is this land, where I do my farming. So, what happens to me now? The chief gave us land; people with money got the land from us.
Nowhere to go
– Where can we go? This is the only land we (she, her husband and three children) have lived on. We have no jobs, why should they take even the little that we have? she said.
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Tilføjelse: Mangan spiller en afgørende rolle i produktionen af jern og stål, hvor det fikserer svovl, fjerner ilt og bidrager til at gøre stål rustfrit, hårdt og slidstærkt; mellem 85 og 90 procent af manganproduktionen går til dette formål.
