http://www.somaliawatch.org/Archivemay/000602102.htm
Tanzania Government to Vet Non-Citizens
Story Filed: Friday, June 02, 2000 11:27 AM EST
Dar-es-Salaam (The East African, June 2, 2000) - The Tanzania government, wary of infiltration by foreigners of top strategic positions in the army, government and politics, has embarked on a discreet campaign to identify non-Tanzanians and weed them out.
Government sources in Dar es Salaam told The EastAfrican that the move was prompted by the impending general election, due in October. It is feared that some non-citizens are eyeing political positions through Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
A nomination to compete on a CCM ticket practically guarantees the contender victory and a ride to power in Tanzania.
The EastAfrican has further learnt that CCM initiated the move to identify and avoid non-citizens, because it was feared that they could pose a political risk after the election. The opposition could successfully contest their citizenship in court and reduce their numbers in the National Assembly.
Tanzania has many non-citizens who have permanently settled in the country without any legal documents. Some have lived in the country for the past half a century, having come from Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Comoros and Yemen.
Last year, MPs protested against the government's laxity in vetting people who seek high positions in the government, the army and internal security organs as well as elective positions.
Highly placed sources told The EastAfrican that a task force has been formed by the Immigration Department to review citizenship regulations.
But when the public relations officer of the department, Mr. Hubert Chilambo, was contacted for comment, he laughed off the issue.
Asked for comment last week, the Minister for State in the President's Office in charge of Good Governance, Mr. Wilson Masilingi, denied knowledge of the citizenship committee.
"What I know is that we conduct continuous investigations over citizenship and that's the job of the Immigration Department."
However, Mr. Kilontsi Mpologomyi the Kasulu CCM MP, would neither admit nor deny his membership in the citizenship committee nor that of alleged chairman, former Director of Intelligence Dr Hassy Kitine.
He said, "I have never attended their meetings, nor do I know the terms of reference for the Committee." Efforts to get comments from Mr. Kitine failed.
However, a government source said the committee's terms of reference was to investigate non-citizens all over Tanzania, how they entered Tanzanian politics, and their impact on neighbouring countries. It is also to suggest ways to tighten immigration laws.
Last year, parliamentarians identified sources of major illegal immigration as being the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda. The "peaceful stay" of non-Tanzanians was attributed to Tanzanian authorities, who for the past three decades accepted anybody who professed a socialist orientation or financially supported the ruling party. They were regarded as "good citizens."
The source added that Tanzania's laxity in monitoring has led neighbouring countries to become suspicious of these people once they go back to their countries. The international community sees Tanzania as hosting trouble makers from other countries, especially if those countries are in turmoil.
The source said some of infiltrators had become Tanzanian spokesmen, and were heavily involved in running NGOs, the press and other sensitive areas where it was difficult to detect them.
An immigration official told The EastAfrican that many foreigners obtain their citizenship through marriage to local women. Although that does not legally give them automatic citizenship, it enables them to obtain it faster on humanitarian grounds.
A number of suspected foreigners have held important ministerial and military positions too. Others have had to fight for their citizenship in court. Mr. Abdulrahaman Kinana, who served as Minister of Defence under President Ali Hassan Mwinyi (1985-1995) had a rough time justifying his citizenship as his father's immigration file "got lost". His father is said to be a Somali from Mogadishu. He has since quit elective politics.
Mr. Iddi Simba, the Minister for Industries and Commerce, successfully argued in court to retain his citizenship.
A former Tanzania ambassador to Germany and Japan, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Hassan Ahmed Diria (MP - CCM Raha Leo), encountered a citizenship snag while seeking nomination to run for Zanzibar presidency in this year's election.
His opponents have shouted "foreigner" claiming he was of Somali parentage.
Mr. Arcado Ntagazwa (MP- CCM Muhambwe), who once held ministerial position in Lands and Urban Development, and Natural Resources and Tourism, too had to fight a bitter battle to retain his Tanzania citizenship.
Copyright © 2000 The East African. Distributed via Africa News Online.
Dar es Salaam, Tanzanie (PANA 8Fev2001) -- Une des quatre personnalités éminentes dont le gouvernement tanzanien n'a pas reconnu la semaine dernière la nationalité, envisage d'intenter une action en justice pour contrecarrer ce verdict.
"Je ne vais ni demander un permis de séjour, ni chercher à me faire naturaliser puisque je suis tanzanien d'origine" a dit Anatoli Amani, ancien président du parti au pouvoir le Chama Cha Mapinduzi, dans la province occidentale de Kagera limitrophe au Rwanda et à l'Ouganda.
"J'ai été attristé d'entendre dire que je ne suis pas tanzanien et que je devrais faire une demande de nationalité puisque je ne suis pas un réfugié. Je consulte actuellement mon avocat ; s'ils (les membres du gouvernement) le veulent, ils pourraient m'arrêter et m'enchaîner comme un criminel ou un meurtrier et me faire comparaître devant le tribunal. Je vais de ce fait défendre ma nationalité" a dit M. Amani aux journalistes à Bukoba près du Lac Victoria.
Le service de l'immigration tanzanien a déclaré la semaine dernière que M. Amani ainsi que trois autres personnalités de premier plan étaient des étrangers, en avançant l'argument selon lequel leurs parents étaient des étrangers qui n'ont pas été naturalisés.
"Le gouvernement a pris cette décision et il ne va pas revenir là dessus" a souligné un membre du service de l'immigration.
Selon la loi sur l'immigration du pays, toute personne née à la date du 8 décembre 1961 ou avant cette date, et ayant des parents nés au Tanganyika (maintenant Tanzanie continentale), peut prétendre à la nationalité. -0- PANA AN/TKS/NFB/SG 8Fev2001
http://www.nationaudio.com/News/EastAfrican/19022001/Regional/Regional1.html
Monday, February 12, 2001
A JOINT REPORT
THE EASTAFRICAN
THE GOVERNMENT crackdown on "aliens" signalled by the declaration of four prominent personalities in Tanzanian politics as "non-citizens" has sent shock waves through the country's border regions, where thousands of people of foreign origin could face deportation.
Estimates put the number of "aliens" at well over 30,000, most of whom live in Kagera, Kigoma and Rukwa in western Tanzania and Ruvuma and Mtwara in the south, as well as in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar. Many have intermarried with Tanzanians, and are accepted as citizens by local people.
Refugees have been migrating into Tanzania almost continuously since the first wave that fled ethnic killing in the Central African states of Burundi and Rwanda some 50 years ago. Some of them lives in refugee camps but others intermingled with Tanzanians in villages along the borders.
Asked about the crackdown, the spokesman of the Directorate if Immigration, Mr Herbert Chilambo, told The EastAfrican: "The government is not ready to comment on the issue at the moment." However, a senior government sourcein Dar es Salaam confirmed, "This is just the beginning. The crackdown will continue to net all non-citizens and remove those found to be in sensitive civil service positions. We have names that we are following up on," he added without revealing any.
Meanwhile, Rwandan officials interviewed in Kigali said that whatever steps Tanzania took against people of Rwandan origin, "our policy is to welcome home all Rwandans in the diaspora." Rwanda is one the major sources of "aliens: in Tanzania. Some estimates put the number of Rwandans living in the border regions at over 10,000.
The secretary general (permanent secretary) of the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Seth Kamanzi, a former Tanzanian citizen, told The EastAfrican that his government had not been formally informed on the citizenship issue by Tanzania, "but the Rwandan policy is to welcome home all bona fide Rwandans from all over the world."
Mr Kamanzi, who once worked as a lecturer at the Institute of Finance Management in Dar, said he had read the "shocking story" of the cancellations of the citizenship of four prominent people, two of whom are Rwandans by birth, in the Tanzanian newspapers. There had been no formal communication to Kigali, he said. "I know some of those involved to be people of high standing, people who have served Tanzania for many years owing to its strong Pan-Africanist outlook," he added.
The government says it has established that a former Tanzania High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Timothy Bandora, and a former District Commissioner and member of the Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) National Executive Committee, Mr Jenerali Ulimwengu, are Rwandans.
Of the other two, Kagera regional CCM chairman Mr Anatoli Amani is said to be Ugandan and Ms Maudline Castiko, CCM Zanzibar publicity secretary and a NEC member, is apparently a Zambian. All four have been instructed to formally apply for Tanzanian citizenship. Mr Amani has reportedly contested the government order.
Many former Tanzanian citizens like Mr Kamanzi are now prominent persons in Kigali. They include, among others, Dr L. W. Rutayisire, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Rwanda, who lectured at Dar es Salaam University and served on the board of directors of the Bank of Tanzania. Some of Mr Kamanzi's relatives are still in Tanzania, including his brother, who is employed by the Bank of Tanzania.
The Tanzania Citizenship Act 1995 prohibits dual citizenship, but many Tanzanians are said to hold dual citizenship. Most are Tanzanian/ Rwandans, Tanzanian/ Canadians, and Tanzanian/ British. Observers in Dar es Salaam were last week asking why the government waited so long to eject non-citizens, and how they could rise to sensitive positions in government and ruling party.
With the exception of Rukwa region on the eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika, where it is estimated that some 4,000 Congolese alongside several thousand Rwandese refugees, there are no exact counts for the other border regions outside refugee camps. Large numbers of foreigners are thought to be living in Kigoma and Kagera region in villages and towns on the borders of Burundi and Rwanda. Thousands of Mozambicans who fled the fighting between Frelimo and Portugal in the freedom struggle from the early 1970s live in the southern Tanzania regions of Mtwara and Ruvuma.
Dar es Salaam has been host to foreigners from as far away as Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan, while Zanzibar has historically hosted, unquestioned, people originating in the Comoros islands, known locally as Wangazija. Government officials say most such "aliens" did not bother to formalise their citizenship even when the opportunity arose at independence in 1961, and in the 1990s. The Citizenship Act 1995 also provides for immigrants to regularise their citizenship, but is ignored by most. The descendants of these immigrants attended schools and colleges during Mwalimu Nyerere's era, went to the National Services – a paramilitary training institution for Tanzanian youths – and were appointed to positions in the army and the civil service, with some being appointed ministers and joining the diplomatic service.
A number of prominent figures in the country have in the past had their citizenship questioned with some of them forced to justify it in courts of law. This has invariably occurred when vying for political office. These include the current Minister for Industries and Trade, Mr Idi Simba and the former Minister for Lands, Mr Arcado Ntagazwa, now MP for Muhambwe in Kigoma region. The current Minister of Education, Mr Joseph Mungai, is of Kenyan origin.
February 15, 2002
The government of Tanzania has turned down an application for naturalisation by Jenerali Ulimwengu, a veteran journalist and publisher.
Ulimwengu, 53 is Chairman of Habari Corporation, publisher of highly regarded and fiercely independent newspapers "Rai", "Mtanzania" and "The African", which have often run foul of the government by writing revelatory stories and biting commentaries about corruption in high places.
Last year, in a move that shocked many, the Tanzania government announced it had stripped Ulimwengu of his citizenship, alongside three other people because, it was said that they could not prove their parents' citizenship.
They were all advised to apply for naturalisation to take care of "technical problems". They all applied and on Wednesday February 13 it was revealed that all except Ulimwengu had been granted naturalisation by the Minister of Home Affairs.
According to the Tanzanian chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Tanzania), this move has confirmed fears, expressed last year, that the whole charade had been organised to get at Ulimwengu because of his journalistic activities.
Ulimwengu's 's critical newspaper articles and weekly television programme have often irked authorities.
Ends
http://www.nationaudio.com/News/EastAfrican/04032002/Regional/Regional20.html
Monday, February 25, 2002
Tanzania Under Pressure to Grant Ulimwengu Citizenship
A JOINT REPORT
THE EASTAFRICAN
PRESSURE GROUPS in Tanzania have initiated a campaign urging the government to reverse its decision to deny citizenship to the chairman of one of the country's biggest media houses, Mr Jenerali Twaha Khalfan Ulimwengu.
A hundred and forty University of Dar es Salaam lecturers have signed a petition to the government.
They have also appealed for the support of other pressure groups worldwide to urge the government to grant citizenship to Mr Ulimwengu.
However,The EastAfrican was unable to contact Mr Ulimwengu for comment last week.
Mr Ulimwengu, of Rwandese parentage, is the chairman of Habari Corporation, publishers of Dimba, Rai, Mtanzania and The African newspapers. He was among four prominent figures in the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the Tanzania government who were stripped of their Tanzania citizenship in February 2001, but were given a chance to apply for citizenship.
The other three were Mr Timothy Bandora (Rwandan parentage) a former Tanzania ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Anatoli Amani (Ugandan) who was Kagera regional CCM chairman, and Ms Maudline Castico (Zambian) who was a member of the National Executive Council of CCM and a staunch supporter of the former Zanzibar president, Dr Salmin Amour. The three were granted citizenship while Mr Ulimwengu's application was denied without any reason being given.
Commenting the issue, the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Seif Khatibu, said in a statement last week that Mr Ulimwengu was denied Tanzania citizenship because he did not "fulfil the laid down Tanzania sovereign laws and regulations" in seeking citizenship, and "not on political grounds at all."
In an interview withThe EastAfrican, Mr Khatibu said the rejection of Mr Ulimwengu's application had nothing to do with his criticism of the government or "anything personal."
He said he was just one among 50 people whose citizenship applications had been rejected since 1998.
"Why are you treating the Ulimwengu issue as a special one? This is not a political issue; we have denied others like him and no publicity or complaints have been raised," he said.
According to his earlier statement, the Minister for Home Affairs is not required by law to explain why he denies granting citizenship to anyone. This is according to the Citizenship Act 23 of 1995.
However, the CUF national chairman, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, said such laws were bad and should be scrapped or amended and that the decision had left President Benjamin Mkapa and his government in unprecedented disgrace before the international community.
The Minister said that the argument that Mr Ulimwengu spent most of his life in Tanzania and held different government and political posts did not qualify him to receive citizenship.
A senior official in the Ministry of Home Affairs told The EastAfrican that, "The one who is claiming to have been aggrieved must prove to the public that he/she is a Tanzanian."
According to the lecturers' memorandum, distributed to different organisations and media houses, Mr Ulimwengu was born in Ngara district on April 4, 1948, and went to school in Kamachumu, Katoke and Nyakato in Kagera region.
Another statement signed on February 16 by the Dar es Salaam University Academic Staff Assembly said: "If a country becomes intolerant of criticism and dissent and allows its journalists and academicians to embrace a culture of sycophancy and spineless bootlicking, that country will soon lose its national bearing and gradually plunge into abyss of autocratic misrule."
http://www.dailynews.co.tz/full.asp?PubID=2&ID=717
Daily News (Tanzania)
‘Statements on Mkapa’s citizenship misplaced’
By FAUSTINE KAPAMA, Sunday, August 11, 2002
Former prime minister Joseph Warioba yesterday took swipe at individuals who question the citizenship of President Benjamin Mkapa, saying such allegations were uncalled for and baseless slander.
He advised Tanzanians to refer to the Citizenship Act of 1995 and grasp the
correct definition of a citizen under the country’s constitution.
Opening the second annual general meeting of the Legal and Human Rights Centre
in Dar es Salaam, Justice Warioba said under the law any person who is born
in Tanzania becomes automatically a citizen, except children of diplomats.
Mr Warioba said it was surprising that after the endorsement of the Act,
Tanzanians continued to refer to an outdated legislation.
He described the trend as dangerous, adding that it could make people stateless and violate their human rights.
Justice Warioba told the audience that before independence, Tanganyikans
had no citizenship. They were British subjects. The British colonial government,
he explained, introduced a citizenship law immediately before independence.
He said to iron out citizenship problems that cropped up during the
post-independence era, in 1995 a Citizenship Act was enacted, pegging citizenship
to being born in Tanzania.
"What is worse," the former attorney general and premier said, "citizenship
is assuming the dimension of political fanaticism. The year before last year
some people had guts to question the citizenship of President Amani Abeid
Karume during election time. Only recently a person questioned the citizenship
of Mwalimu Nyerere and President Mkapa..."
He said the graves of the father (Burito) and grandfather (Nyerere) of Mwalimu
are in Butiama. He wondered on what basis people were questioning the nationality
of Mwalimu.
Tanzanians, he said, know President Mkapa was born and grew up in this country;
his parents were born in this country. He then added: "On what basis are
we questioning the citizenship of President Mkapa? Is it because people of
his tribe are found in other countries besides Tanzania?
The former premier advised Tanzanians to go by what the law says on the question of citizenship and refrain from fanaticism, warning that if a person is denied citizenship in a country he or she was born, it is not easy to get citizenship in another country.
Consulat de France en Tanzanie
La double nationalité n'étant pas reconnue en Tanzanie, l'acquisition de la nationalité française par le conjoint étranger entraine la perte de sa nationalité tanzanienne et pose, par conséquent, le problème du séjour.
De même, les enfants issus de couples mixtes doivent choisir leur nationalité lorsqu'ils atteignent l'âge de la majorité légale (18 ans).
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/tanzania/Tanzan99-04.htm
In most countries, voting is the hallmark of citizenship-the primary right that distinguishes citizens from aliens. Tanzania is no exception. Although the Tanzanian constitution reserves the right to vote to citizens (as do mostconstitutions), the possession of ruling party membership cards indicates that the old caseload Burundians participated in government elections and were accepted by the local authorities as being indistinguishable from citizens in all regards, many for over two decades. Having been granted and having lawfully exercised such a fundamental right, the old caseload Burundians have a meaningful basis on which to distinguish themselves from other Burundian residents.
Socially, this group of refugees has assimilated into Tanzanian society. Many of their adult children who have been born in Tanzania speak fluent Kiswahili and have never been to Burundi. Most refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch spoke of the close and friendly relationships that they had established with their fellow villagers before the round-ups. Most had developed strong family and community ties with the Tanzanians around them and considered themselves upstanding members of their community. For many of these Burundian refugees, their loyalty is to Tanzania.
The old caseload Burundians' contributions to Tanzanian society, their ability to be self-sufficient, and their non-threatening posture toward the Tanzanian government all warrant their release from the camps; indeed, these facts should have prevented their being rounded up in the first instance. Long-time refugee families who are able to sustain themselves without international assistance should not be forced into camps where they are deprived of the opportunity to support themselves.
Even if the nation's safety were compromised by some Burundians in the settlements, it is highly unlikely that old caseload Burundians en masse would be the catalysts for national instability in Tanzania. As employed, taxpaying residents of Tanzania, these old caseload Burundians represented no threat to the political or social stability to Tanzania; if anything, they enhanced it. These were active members of community regularly paying taxes in a timely fashion, providing farming labor for the local economy, and voters in local and party elections. Tanzanian villages have become so reliant on these Burundian residents' labor that when the round-ups occurred, local residents reportedly expressed fears that this could have an adverse economic impact.100
The Tanzanian government's contention that Burundians are illegally present if they are outside the refugee camps does not apply persuasively to the old caseload Burundians, whose immigration status is closer to a longstanding resident alien or naturalized citizen than to an illegal alien. Additionally, the right of old caseload Burundians to be restored to their settlements does not hinge on a finding of citizenship. In meetings with officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Human Rights Watch found that arguments for the restoration of the old caseload refugees to their settlements were immediately met with the assumption that such a move would require the government to grant all the old caseload refugees Tanzanian citizenship. The Tanzanian government did offer the old caseload Burundian refugees the opportunity to change their citizenship between 1991 and 1993, and even went so far as to significantly lower the administrative fee. Camp commanders at Nduta camp expressed the sentiments that were echoed by other camp commanders and officials in Dar-es-Salaam when they stated:
These refugees had years to apply for citizenship but they did not do it. Now that they are rounded up, all of a sudden they talk about citizenship. We need to be careful who we give our citizenship to. Look how we gave it to the old caseload Rwandans. We treated them well and they tore up our passports and left. We cannot even give them a permit to go out of the camps because we know that they will not return. We have to think about our security. We are not interested in fighting with the Burundian government. We don't want to have any problems. We have already had border skirmishes with the Burundian army.101
The Tanzanian government does not have to give all the old caseload Burundian refugees citizenship in order to restore them their former status as integrated refugees. The old caseload refugees should be permitted to apply for residence permits and allowed to return to their settlements. Local integration of refugees is one of the three durable solutions (along with voluntary repatriation and third-country resettlement) preferred and recommended by UNHCR. In many places in the world, refugees live outside organized camps without international assistance. Some analysts have suggested that in Africa, well over half of all exiles fall into this category.102 The government can, and should, return this relatively small group of refugees, as refugees, to their integrated refugee status in Tanzania until such time as they can return voluntarily to Burundi.
That said, there are some old caseload Burundians, particularly those married to Tanzanian citizens, who are eligible and should be assisted by UNHCR to apply for citizenship. Offers of eligibility for Tanzanian citizenship were made to this group in the early 1990s. Some Burundian refugees did take advantage of this offer since most regarded themselves as Tanzanians, having lived most (and in some cases all) of their lives in Tanzania. There are others who did apply who never received any reply. However, many did not either because of lack of money, ignorance as to the consequences of not applying, and the lack of any explanation regarding the potential repercussions of not changing their citizenship. Identity documentation in that area is the exception rather than the rule. Most rural Burundians and Tanzanians do not possess identity documents of any sort that verify citizenship. Records of national identity are retained by the village leaders and through personal knowledge. Many refugees assumed from their lengthy stay and the government's acceptance that such formalization was not obligatory, particularly since most Tanzanians do not possess any national identification. The required fee for applying for citizenship deterred many from filing their applications even though they were eligible and even interested. Other Burundian refugees told Human Rights Watch that they had not applied for citizenship because they were unaware of or intimidated by the process. In other cases, Burundian refugees expressed their gratitude to Tanzania for giving them refuge but wanted to retain their Burundian nationality and return to Burundi when the situation permits. One UNHCR staff member noted: "identity is all that these Burundian refugees have left."103
For those refugees who are eligible for citizenship but are unable to pay the filing fee, the government should make a one-time fee dispensation to assist them to apply. Article 34 of the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees states that host governments "shall as far as possible facilitate the assimilation and naturalization of refugees. They shall in particular make every effort to expedite naturalization proceedings and to reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings." If any refugee group is deserving of consideration under this clause, it is those old caseload Burundian refugees who qualify.
98 Some refugee law analysts have posited that under international and common law, individuals acquire enforceable interests based on the development of ties, links, roots, and expectations given to them and that a foreign national's "legitimate expectations" should be taken into account, including such "acquired rights" as may derive from long residence and establishment, business, marriage, and local integration. Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, The Refugee in International Law, (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1983), p. 211, 222.
99 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld on request), Mwanza, May 24, 1998.
100 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld on request), Mwanza, May 24, 1998.
101 Human Rights Watch interview, John Mwaka, Nduta camp commander and Andrew Kibona, Nduta assistant camp commander, Nduta camp, June 1, 1998.
102 UNHCR, The State of the World's Refugees, 1997-1998, (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1997), p. 58.
103 Human Rights Watch interview, UNHCR staff member, Kigoma, May 25, 1998.