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’Govt to blame for Mererani child labour film’
2006-09-25 08:52:25
By Modestus Kessy, Arusha
Some tanzanite dealers in Arusha have accused the regional authorities of inability to foresee negative consequences of a documentary film on child labour at Mererani Tanzanite mines.
In an interview, they said in 2005, the Information Services Division (MAELEZO) in Arusha, issued a permit to people whose nationalities could not be immediately established.
The traders in possession of a copy of the permit with reference number IH/ARS/F.40/20/VoIIX/34, dated October 22, 2005 said the government should blame no one but its officials on the tainted image, conveyed to the international community on child labour.
A senior official from MAELEZO headquarters in Dar es Salaam, who spoke to The Guardian on condition of anonymity, said he was surprised nobody was being punished by the government.
’It is time the government acted,’’ he said.
The letter was copied to Mererani police station, Manyara Regional Police Commander, the Northern Zone Mining Office, Simanjiro District Executive Director and the Arusha City Director.
The permit did not indicate the nationalities of the two individuals assigned to make a documentary named; ’Gem Slave: Tanzanite’s Child Labour’ which was launched at the United Nations headquarters in New York recently.
Rondolph was issued with permit No. 205538707 and Groenendijk had permit no. NF 6412034 to make news agency documentary film, which will cover Mererani in Manyara Region and Arusha city.
’’They wanted the world to believe that over 4,000 children aged between 8 and 14 years, are employed at Mererani mines. How did they arrive at that figure? ’’
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is supporting projects against child labour in the area under its world-wide International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour.
Harry Mushi, a Programme Co-ordinator of Good Hope Programme, a non-Governmental Organisation working on child labour at Mererani told reporters that he accompanied the filming mission on that last two days. He said he was told to accompany the two RIO and the ILO officials in Dar es Salaam.
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