Since August 1996, multiple groups aside from Tundu Lissu and Barrick Gold have investigated the evictions of the small-scale miners in Bulyanhulu, but there has still been no independent inquiry.
“We do agree that there continue to be unresolved questions as to whether there may have been some deaths there, and continue to be of the view that an independent inquiry is what is necessary to put those allegations to rest,” said Alex Neve of Amnesty International.
Amnesty says the investigation should follow UN principles, which demand that the inquiry has the authority and budget to ensure the matter is investigated thoroughly. “To this end, they shall be entitled to issue summonses to witnesses, including the officials allegedly involved and to demand the production of evidence,” the principles unequivocally state.
In the Tanzanian police report produced in August 1996, the police state that upon cross-examination, witnesses to the alleged killings recant their testimony. The report does not mention which officers question which witnesses, where and how they did so and under what circumstances.
The report recommends that “those who still believe that their friends, relatives and family have been buried…exhume the pits themselves at their own cost.”
The Canadian High Commissioner reported to diplomats in Dar es Salaam that she talked to numerous regional authorities and Kahama officials “at length over several months,” and was “convinced that to the best of their knowledge, no single person was buried during the three-month long operation to fill in the illegal pits.”
Department of Foreign Affairs official André Lemay says the matter is essentially closed for now. When asked again about their position on the matter in a subsequent interview, Lemay referred the reporter to a National Post article supporting Barrick’s assertion that a thorough investigation at the site had shown there were no problems with the evictions. “A lot of the arguments in that article are arguments we feel reflect our position,” said Lemay.
The United Democratic Party (UDP) of Tanzania, a liberal opposition party, created an 18-member independent commission to look into the incident in the fall of 1996.
The UDP report, compiled by respected civil servant and journalist Stephen Mhuli, was not greeted with pleasure by the Canadian government. In a heavily censored copy of a three-page document sent to DFAIT, the High Commissioner expressed her concern about the public relations image the report would create, noting, “On Nov 19, 1996 with the Mining Sector Conference in full swing in Arusha and with representatives of the whole industry present, the Guardian [Tanzanian newspaper] on its front page printed an article entitled ‘UDP Panel to file petition on Buried Miners’.”
The World Bank and the Canadian Export Development Corporation are two public institutions that provided loans totalling nearly $400 million to insure the mine against “political risks.” Both have rules that forbid the funding of projects connected to human rights abuses. Barrick says they have other evidence gathered by the World Bank which proves that nobody was buried alive at the site, but they can’t release it because of World Bank privilege (privacy regulations).
The UN principles for the prevention and investigation of extra-judicial killings.
The UN principles demand a public commission of inquiry, which hears evidence in public and makes a public report.
According to the UN, when unnatural deaths are alleged to occur at the hands of government officials, there shall be an investigation to “determine the cause, manner and time of death, the person responsible, and any pattern or practice which may have brought about that death. It shall include an adequate autopsy, collection and analysis of all physical and documentary evidence and statements from witnesses.”
No investigation to date has met all of the criteria outlined by the UN principles, and for this reason, many are demanding an independent inquiry that does.
Click here to read The Mine’s Owners
