Tanzania to assess land conflicts between villages and military camps

DAR ES SALAAM, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian Minister for Defense and National Service, Hussein Mwinyi, said on Wednesday the government was taking measures aimed at resolving land conflicts between villages and military camps.

Mwinyi told the National Assembly in the capital Dodoma that the government was worried over the increasing wave of land conflicts between villagers and military camps.

"We have planned to undertake nationwide surveys to establish the magnitude of the problem and take corrective measures," the minister told the House.

"The conflicts have been reported in many parts of the country, thus the need to intervene," added Mwinyi.

Mwinyi was responding to a question asked by the Morogoro Urban Member of Parliament, Abdul-Aziz Abood, who had wanted to know when the government will resolve land conflicts between residents of Kauzeni and Luhongo villages in Morogoro region and the Tanzania People's Defense Forces (TPDF).

The MP said the residents in the two villages had been left without land for farming as the army has installed beacons in what used to be their farming land.

Abood argued that it was the TPDF that encroached on the land villagers have been farming, calling on the government to reverse the situation and hand over the portion of land to the villagers. Enditem