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Govt allows TanzanineOne to use live bullets on intruders
2006-12-30 09:41:23
By Adam Ihucha, Arusha
The government has allowed TanzaniteOne Ltd, a commercial mining firm in Mererani, to use reasonable force; including the use of air guns and live bullets against underground intruders who trespass the company’s mining area.
Manyara Regional Police Commander Neven Mashayo granted the company with the authority on December 27.
There has been a long-standing conflict between TanzaniteOne workers and small-scale miners, with the latter trespassing the commercial miner’s zone on several occasions.
”Using powers vested upon me as the Manyara Regional Police Commander, I have granted TanzaniteOne a green light to apply reasonable force against small-scale miners who encroach their area,” Mashayo told the Guardian yesterday.
He said the decision to give the investor such powers was reached due to frequent underground clashes which took place between the firm’s employees and small-scale miners.
”As it stands now, TanzaniateOne is at liberty to use guns against local artisanals who storm their mining site,” he said.
He said that in recent days, small-scale miners have cultivated a culture of using home-made hand grenades to scare away the company’s security officers and blow off underground grills intended to block trespassers.
In August, this year, local miners used explosives against TanzaniteOne’s employees, injuring some of them.
”One of the recent horrific incidents during which small-scale Tanzanite diggers used home-made bombs took place on December 26, 2006.
The attack left a number of TanzaniteOne workers seriously injured,” Mashayo said.
”These incidents have scared TanzaniteOne employees stiff…so as law enforcers, we have resolved to give them the power to apply reasonable force to safeguard their properties and their very lives,” he said.
Critics, however, say that the decision has resulted from the fact that the Police Force has, for a number of years, failed to intervene in clashes between the two parties, an argument that Mashayo concurred with.
”It is true that the local police cannot afford to intervene in underground scuffles because the undertaking itself needs special training.
Our officers had never attended such a course,” Mashayo said.
The TanzaniteOne President, Ian Harebottle, is on record as repeatedly saying that the solution to the Mererani crisis could be obtained at any moment if everybody would abide by the law irrespective of their colour, nationality, tribe, gender, status or income.
TanzaniteOne Company Ltd took over the key operations of eight square kilometres Block ’C’ Tanzanite Mining Site Mererani in May 2004 from the South African Mining Company African Gem Resources (AFGEM), which thereafter diverted its attention to diamond exploration.
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