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4,000 Ngorongoro villagers ask govt to `tame`...
2008-02-13 09:23:15
By Charles Ole Ngereza, PST, Arusha
More than 4000 people from Irkepus Village in Ngorongoro District, Arusha Region have threatened to match and smash the gates of Ngorongoro Conservation Authority to press the government to intervene against harassments by the authority`s staff.
The villagers made their stand at a public meeting called to discuss what they consider as harassment by the authority which prevents them from grazing their livestock on the demarcated areas within the conservation.
Speaking to reporters, one of the villagers, Edward Ndulet, alleged that the authority has even barred the villagers to build a secondary school for the their children for no good reason.
``Villagers have contributed a lot of money to build a secondary school, but the authority refused us; instead, as if to show that we are good for nothing, it has allowed a tourist camp to be built in the area,`` he alleged.
He said the villagers were surprised to learn that the authority has refused them permission to build a secondary school in the area allegedly to avoid environmental destruction, but gave the same area to the construction of a tourist camp.
He further said that the village chairman, Lerito Tungungwa, was arrested last week by the authority`s police and fined for allegedly allowing villagers to graze their livestock in the conservation's prohibited areas.
The villagers claimed that relations between the Authority and the villagers have for a long time not been good because of their alleged harassment by the authority officers.
The Member of Parliament for Ngorongoro, Saningo Telele, told PST that he was aware of the villagers` complaints and he had complained in Parliament several times but he was also surprised that nothing had happened.
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