\u2022 The Heads of State, EAC.
\n\u2022 The Speaker, East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).
\n\u2022 Hon. Members of EALA.
\n\u2022 The President, East African Court of Justice.
\n\u2022 The Council of Ministers.
\n\u2022 The Secretary General, EAC.<\/p>\n
{{Your Excellencies, Rt. Hon. Speaker, Hon. Ministers, Hon. Members of EALA and fellow citizens of the EAC Partner States,}}<\/p>\n
The African Charter on Human and People\u2019s Rights prescribes that \u201cEvery individual shall be entitled to the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms recognized and guaranteed in the present Charter without distinction of any kind such as race, ethnic group, color, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status\u201d (Art,2).<\/p>\n
It further covenants that \u201cThe mass expulsion of non-nationals shall be prohibited.
\nMass expulsion shall be that which is aimed at national, racial, ethnic or religious groups\u201d (Art. 12 (5).<\/p>\n
The Treaty for the establishment of the East African Community, which was signed in November 1999 and came into force in July 2000, espouses: \u2026\u201d adherence to universally acceptable principles of good governance, democracy, the rule of law, observance of human rights and social justice\u201d, as some of the main criteria for admission into EAC membership ( Article 3.3a)<\/p>\n
In the Common Market Protocol (Art 7), EAC Partner States guaranteed the free movement of persons who are citizens of the other Partner States, within their territories and covenanted that each Partner State shall ensure non\u2010discrimination of citizens of other Partner States based on their nationalities. <\/p>\n
According to eye witnesses who reported to EACSOF, by August 13 2013, more than 7,000 people of Rwandan ancestry had been forced out of Tanzania. Elderly women are being rounded up at gun point with nothing on them, and forced out to the Rwanda-Tanzania border. <\/p>\n
The children they had with Tanzania men are remaining, because the children are Tanzanian and not their mother. The same thing is happening to men married to Tanzanian women.<\/p>\n
Those being forced out include unemployed youths born in Tanzania, but have Rwandan origins; women and men who left Rwanda as babies in 1959; babies and teenagers born in Tanzania; elderly women\/men who crossed into Karagwe long before Tanzania was born.<\/p>\n
According to press reports, people claiming to represent Tanzanian government areholding meetings with local leaders from which a simple message is given: \u201cALL RWANDANS OUT\u201d. First, the targeted people are forced to give up their official Tanzanian documents, and since they no longer have documents, everything is taken.<\/p>\n
It is incomprehensible that such actions, which are in gross contravention of theTanzanian Constitution, Tanzania Citizenship Act (1995), The EAC Treaty and the African Charter on Human and People\u2019s Rights can take place at this stage of East African integration. <\/p>\n
EACSOF therefore appeals to His Excellency, President Kikwete to come to the urgent rescue of these people whose identity has been stripped from them and with it, fundamental rights plundered! <\/p>\n
Justice will only be seen to have been done with immediate stoppage of evictions, unconditional redress for victimized people to help them recover their right of residence, family life and property and nothing less. <\/p>\n
Martin Mwondha,<\/p>\n
Chief Executive Officer
\nEast African Civil Society Organizations Forum
\nPO Box 12583 Arusha Tanzania
\nTel:+255 687 491 489 \/ +256-772 33 14 39 \/ +256 702 33 14 39
\nAlt. Email: eacsof@gmail.com \/ mmwondha@eacsof.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2022 The Heads of State, EAC. \u2022 The Speaker, East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). \u2022 Hon. Members of EALA. \u2022 The President, East African Court of Justice. \u2022 The Council of Ministers. \u2022 The Secretary General, EAC. {{Your Excellencies, Rt. Hon. Speaker, Hon. Ministers, Hon. Members of EALA and fellow citizens of the EAC Partner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-9834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9834"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=9834"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=9834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}