President Jakaya Kikwete has officially declared an end to contentions pitting Tanzania with Rwanda on the country’s northwestern frontier.
Remarking on the contention at his month end speech last night, the president referred to his last speech at the end of July this year, noting on difficulties in Tanzania-Rwanda relations, armed robberies and illegal migration in Kigoma, Geita and Kagera regions.
He said both these issues were partially resolved and the situation was encouraging, taking note of a meeting with Rwanda President Paul Kagame when the Great Lakes Summit was taking place in Kampala, on September 5, to discuss relations between the two countries .
He said the talks were positive and they both agreed that what was gone was irrelevant and the two countries should take up challenges of building the future.
“For that reason we agreed to create an environment which will help to cool down the situation and return our countries to good relations as it was always the case,” the president declared.
“I appeal to my brothers, especially politicians, public servants, media people and those with social networking sites and blogs along with wananchi in general to help strengthen good relations between Rwanda and Tanzania, and our people,” he urged.
The president sounded satisfaction on steps taken by the government in the wake of concerns he raised in his end of July speech concerning the spate of armed robberies and illegal immigration.
He said in a special operation from September 6 to September 20, about 21,254 illegal immigrants left voluntarily, with about 8000 cattle removed and 102 firearms surrendered.
Illegal immigrants numbering 12,828 were returned to their countries, while 279 armed robbery suspects were arrested. Similarly, ten hand grenades he qualified as offensive, 80 guns, 780 bullets and two workshops for the fabrication of guns were collected by the police.
About 8,226 cattle were impounded grazing in reserved areas, while in forest products sub-sector, about 2,105 sawed timber pieces were captured along with various government trophies.
He said that the government’s directive to those living in the country illegally to regularize their stay or voluntarily leave or be removed was misrepresented by the foreign media, alleging that the country was chasing away refugees.
“Those claims aren’t true at all. Up to September 30, 2013 some 68,711 refugees were in Nyarugusu camp in Kigoma Region. No refugee was directed to leave,” he affirmed, elaborating that those who left voluntarily or assisted to leave during that operation were refugees.
“If that was the case, the first to complain would have been our colleagues of the UN High Commission for Refugees. Fortunately nothing of the sort happened,” the president intoned.
He strongly castigated “those who said that the government was victimizing and inflicting pain on people who had lived in the country for many years, demanding how it could be that suddenly they were not citizens, or what the government was doing all this time.”
“Citizenship is not obtained by living in a foreign country for many years. It is obtained by fulfilling conditions of applying for and being given citizenship. If someone did not do so he or she remains a citizen of the country he or she comes from or his or her parents came from,” he emphasized, recalling that some important public figures were forced to relinquish their posts after it was discovered that they were not citizens.
“They were not victimized’ that is what the Constitution and laws of the country demand,” he emphasized.
The president was adamant that in implementing that operation, he had directed that persons who have lived in the country for many years and had houses, farms and other properties or are married and have children or even grandchildren be directed to regularize their stay.
“If they refuse to do so then they should be assisted to go back to their countries,” he elaborated.
He had also given the order that they should not be deprived of their properties or victimized, saying that he had received no reports that something to the contrary of that directive took place.
“But if there are people who were treated differently, such a report should be given to District Commissioners and Regional Commissioners and even the President’s Office so that appropriate measures should be taken,” he directed, insisting that the government does not want people to be victimized or oppressed.
He said that his visit to the United States led to acceptance of a request for 2.4 million textbooks for science and math, to enable each secondary school student to have a book of his or her own in the subjects.
Along with receiving a doctorate degree honoris causa at Guelph University in the US, the president also received an International Congressional Conservation Foundation Prize, recognizing the country’s efforts in fighting poaching and solving other problems related to conservation of wildlife and forests.
His speech dwelt on preparations for Post 2015 Development Agenda: Setting the Stage, a conference held in New York, where, among other things, the president said the government was preparing to widen the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) to initiate conditional cash transfer so that its support can reach more poor people.
Dwelling on the continuing disputes on the writing of a new constitution, President Kikwete highlighted that the Constitutional Review Commission was now preparing proposals for a second draft of the constitution which will be sent to the special legislature (constituent assembly).
“After its deliberations, the Constituent Assembly will prepare the final draft of the Constitution which will be presented to the people in a referendum,” he said, underlining that after that stage we shall have obtained a new constitution.
The president urged leaders of CHADEMA, CUF and NCCR-Mageuzi, the three opposition parties with representation in Parliament, to take up the method used last year in relation to the law on the constitution rewriting process.
“When circumstances arose similar to the present, all concerned parties sat down and discussed each of the disputed issues and agreed on what should be done and how it should be done,” he appealed, adding that after that accord the relevant legal proceedings and regulatory requirements were taken to end the dispute.
