In the face of the court’s ruling, the evictions continue. The Kahama bulldozer is sent in on August 7 to prevent miners from returning by filling the mining shafts (also called pits). The High Commission and Barrick later maintained the process was entirely peaceful. Reports in the Tanzanian press, however, describe mass confusion, looting, robbery and bloodshed as people rushed to collect their few possessions and flee the police.
A Kahama memorandum to top Sutton board members dated August 12, 1996 documents the eviction process from Kahama Mining’s point of view.
“We hired one miner as an ‘Inspector’ to check each active shaft to make sure that there were no miners left in them.”
Kulwa John was paid the equivalent of $4 US in Tanzanian shillings to inspect five shafts on August 7, according to a receipt in Barrick’s files. This was the day of many of the alleged burials.
How many pits were filled in on each day is not apparent from the Kahama memo.
“There were a number of active pits which the miners were slow to get out of,” says the Kahama memo. “[The miners] also started telling us there were men in other shafts when there were not.”
The memo indicates two more inspectors were hired on August 8 and they “started checking each pit ahead of the D6 [Bulldozer].” It also notes, “Neither the police or Paul Mwajombe, the Madini [Ministry of Mines] rep, were going to go down.”
In addition to filling the shafts, the bulldozer was “to start reducing [the market] Dabora #3 to kindling.” By August 9 they had “demolished Dabora #3 so the miners had no place to hide.”
The memo describes how General Kiwelu “wanted us to go faster” and work into the night, but Kahama management refused for safety reasons and instead attempted to rent another bulldozer to speed the process. On August 10, Kiwelu “advised the RPC that he had another week to finish the job.”
The whole of Bulyanhulu contained approximately 500 shafts or pits.
By August 12 they moved on to the area around Dabora #2 (a market), noting, “We are concentrating on filling only active pits on [one of the mining areas named] Reef 2, and destroying local shacks in Dabora #2 while waiting for the pits to be declared clear.
“The Chairman for the CCM party, Bugarama Ward, came to us on Friday to object to our burying people.
“We took him to Reef No. 1 where he had the opportunity to talk to the Regional Police Commissioner, the Madini Rep and our inspectors and to observe for himself.” The Chairman reported to the CCM party that no burials took place.
The Tanzanian media reported confusion and incidents of violence during the mass evictions.
“The Regional Commissioner’s [Kiwelu’s] harsh statements triggered fear, panic and despair among the miners,” Shinyanga Region Miners’ Association spokesperson Zephania Luzama told Tanzania’s Guardian newspaper. “It was interfering with the independence and integrity of the judiciary, and the notice was so short that the packing was unlikely to be smoothly accomplished.”
On August 7, Canada’s diplomats transmitted the news of the evictions to Ottawa. “The news on Bulyanhulu is all good. The 10-20,000 illegal miners are gone from the property.”
A number of sources, including the Tanzanian media, report that the police at the site were taking bribes in gold from the miners, who wished to continue mining. Kahama’s August 12 memo on the shaft-filling process says that “the RPC says he trusts his officers, but we have seen very strong evidence that the rank and file have colluded with the miners.” The assistant commissioner of mines, S. Mohamed, agreed.
The Tanzanian Guardian suggests that the way in which the evictions were carried out led to panic. “A survey made by the Guardian at the Bulyanhulu mines showed that the atmosphere fuelled disorder…The eviction ‘fever’ was accompanied by widespread acts of banditry. Six robbers trying to invade a house in Kakola village were caught by villagers and burned to death.” Barrick acknowledges some robbers were burned to death, but disputes that the evictions triggered the violence and looting.
The police were also called to the scene to investigate. A videotape created by Kahama employee O.C. Lopa and obtained by Tundu Lissu documents their investigations.
In one portion of the video, villagers who claim their friends were buried point to mines that have been levelled by bulldozers. They point out decaying body parts around the area, and implore the officers to investigate. The officers look, take notes, and move on. They make no move to dig into the mines to see if there are bodies, though some miners are shown attempting to do so on their own.
The official police report says, “Finally, the exercise of unearthing the shafts is a costly exercise since the pits are over to (sic) metres in depth and it is estimated that 500,000 [Tanzanian shillings] would be required to unearth a filled pit/shaft and which will involve an entire day’s work. Also, the operation of unearthing the shafts may prove to be ineffective.”
The United Democratic Party travelled to Bulyanhulu shortly after the allegations surfaced. They found many people willing to testify.
UDP leader John Cheyo arrived with the Commission of Inquiry on December 17, 1996. One of the miners told Cheyo, “Using a KMC [Kahama] bulldozer, our government destroyed 4 wards, which had between them 6,400 homesteads; and filled in and flattened some 500 gold mine pits, burying more than 52 miners who were working underground.”
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