In response to a cry for help from Tanzania, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) called upon the Minister of Tourism in the East African country on Friday to stop the expulsion of Maasai from the Loliondo Game Control Area. "Please do not renew the recently expired big game hunting license, so the original inhabitants can return to their land," was the appeal that the human rights organization directed to Ms. Shamsa Mwangunga. Ortello Business Corporation (OBC), an Arabian company that organizes big game hunts, has forcefully driven more than 3,000 Maasai out of the park in recent years and burned down some 200 of their dwellings in an effort to prevent them from returning.

"But these semi-nomads refuse to passively accept this expulsion," reports Ulrich Delius, head of the Africa section at the STP. "They already have the backing of a broad coalition of NGOs in Tanzania who are committed to helping them return to the wildlife park." In April 2010, around 3,000 Maasai women took the initiative and demonstrated in Loliondo for the right of the displaced persons to return to their land. Many of the women traveled for days from their camps and villages to take part in the demonstration in Ngorongoro, the capital of the province. The response of officials amounted to further persecution: Several dozen women were arrested and hundreds were forcefully carted away in trucks to prevent further demonstrations. The women's action caused a sensation in Tanzania and led to the formation of a broad-based coalition of supporting organizations, including Maasai activists, civil rights workers, environmental protection activists, church organizations from a variety of religions, women's groups, journalists and legal practitioners.

The allied groups want to stop the extension of the expired hunting license held by OBC. The company, which reportedly has links to royal families in the United Arab Emirates, has held exclusive safari and hunting rights in Loliondo since 1992. Hunting tourism is a lucrative business for the Tanzanian government, bringing US$80 million into treasury coffers every year. But the natives, who live on cattle and goat breeding, pay the price. The Maasai living in Loliondo originally come from the Serengeti. When the famous national park was established there in 1951, they were forcibly resettled in Loliondo. Now they are being driven out of there as well, and do not know where they will find new grazing land for their 50,000 animals.

Ulrich Delius can be reached by phone at +49 (0)160/ 9567-1403.

Translated by Elizabeth Crawford