Begrebet jordtyveri omfatter stadig større dele af Afrika, hvor udenlandske selskaber får tildelt jord på favorable vilkår – men i Liberia har fattige sat sig op mod en malaysisk palmeolie-koncern.
MONROVIA, 17 February 2012 (IRIN): Hundreds of villagers and town residents of Liberia’s Grand Cape Mount Country have attracted nationwide attention in their bid to recover what they say is land seized from them and turned over to a Malaysian agro-industrial concern.
A petition (bønskrivelse) sent to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s office in January by the aggrieved people’s political representatives demanded the return of their land.
“This is unbearable,” Mary Freeman, 42, of Sinje Town said, adding:
“Our government must care for us and not allow these people to kill us silently. What have we done to go through all of these sufferings? This land belongs to us. We were born here and we give birth to our children here too. This is the only place we know.”
Malaysian company Sime Darby Plantations was granted a permit on 21 April 2010 to cultivate 10.000 hectares of palm oil in Bomi and Grand Cape Mount counties.
Now, the company has applied for an additional 15.000 hectares for palm oil cultivation in Garwular and Gola Konneh districts, in the Grand Cape Mount County, and another 20.000 hectares in Gbarpolu County.
The attorney representing the aggrieved parties of Cape Mount County, Alfred Brownel, has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to reject these additional requests. He vowed his rights group, Green Advocates, would continue to support those who had lost their land.
“These things must stop. Our people deserve the right to survive. They should not be denied their land. We will not stop until their lives are transformed and the situation changed”, he said.
Critics say the concession is a land grab (jordtyveri). When unresolved, land disputes could plunge the country into “serious chaos”, said Jerry Lomah, president of Lomah National Law Firm in Monrovia.
“The government must set up an active land commission to keep eyes on these issues,” Lomah added.
Liberia has a history of land conflicts, especially since the end of the civil war in 2003. In the northeastern town of Ganta there is a long-running conflict over land between the Mandingo and Mano people.
Lomah said a land commission could speed up resolution of such disputes and the Sime Darby case.
Mistakes made
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