The road to southern Busoga forest reserve, 32 miles south of<br>Mayuge district, is abandoned just like peasants who live in the interior
By Robert Kanusu in Bunya-Mayuge
The road to southern Busoga forest reserve, 32 miles south of Mayuge district, is abandoned just like peasants who live in the interior. The road was slippery as torrential rains fell on us. We braved the rain and the mud, which often blocked our motorcycles' movement.
At some places along the way, we could hardly see ahead on this abandoned road, which is full of potholes and a dozen of impassable swamps.
This welcome into the 16,000 hectares forest reserve was a reflection of the hardships peasants in the area face. They are almost cut off from the rest of society and live like the stone age men. Basic social services are a dream to many of them.
Buluba Hospital, the only government hospital in the area, is far away, and this forces residents to resort to traditional treatment. “if you miss the early morning bus, you better wait until thefollowing day or use bicycles, which are a preserve for the rich here,†Mudhasi, mynavigator, said.
The sources of water are swamps, valleys and unprotected wells, which expose residents to health problems. I realised that it is not even easy for residents to harvest water on the shelters because there is no single iron-roofed house in the forest.
Despite these hardships, residents have struggled until last year when fresh evictions were mounted in the area.
This has added more misery and aggravated anger from the already poor peasants who live off tilling the forest for survival. In turn, the forest department, with the help of the Police, has strengthened their security and applied full force, hence threatening farmers from encroaching on the forest. “we have to do everything possible to chase them out of the forest,†Fred Muremi, the officer in-charge, says. “Arrests and torture of victims are the order of the day and have left many people injured and homeless,†Daudi Walabana, a medical practitioner in the neighbouring Bugadde trading centre, said. He added that he attended to over 60 cases of the victims injured during the evictions.
Among them were women and children. In the most affected sub-counties of Kityerere and Malongo, the Police use crude methods to subdue resistant peasants. And just before Easter this year, there was a big swoop which left hundreds of people arrested and families homeless. Fred Simunyu, a journalist who has been following the evictions says similar incidents of torture have been going on for a long time.
Demusi Mugoya, 74, from Bwembe village, said his house was touched after the Police looted and destroyed everything of value. “All my goats, hens and grain were looted, and they warned me of tougher action if I failed to vacate the forest,†Mugoya said.
Today, he sleeps in a makeshift hut built with dried banana leaves. Two of his sons, Tulibuza and Tezikoma, were arrested in a night operation and whisked off to Bufulubi farm prison. “I survived arrest because I’m old, but my sons were imprisoned,†he said.
Like a soldier armed for war, he tossed a panga from his right arm to the left and strolled helplessly back to his hut. Vacating the forest seems not to be one of his options as he claims ancestral rights to the land. Madina Nakandha is a breast-feeding mother with four young children whose father, Isabirye Bakari, fell victim to night the evictions. “They came at night last month, beat him up and ordered us to vacate the house. They then set the house on fire,†Nakandha said.
Bakari and other 98 farmers were arrested two months ago. As a result of these actions, over 15,000 people including children now live in fear. They hardly access basic needs because the operatives arrest anybody they find on the way to the forest.
She added that the operatives mount roadblocks any time to intimidate residents. “I was not spared on that day. We were stopped, checked and asked to identify ourselves,†she said. To avoid the operatives, farmers either move at night or risk facing the iron hand. The fresh attacks have brought mixed feelings among residents, local leaders and the forest department.
Mayuge Woman MP Lukia Isanga said the operations were illegal. She added that much as the government gave orders for people to vacate the forest land, it had an obligation to demarcate its boundaries. “Currently, we cannot tell where forest land starts or ends. Not even the forest officers can tell where forest land passes. That is my query because many innocent people are suffering,†Isanga said.
She said her efforts to find a solution is jeopardised by the evictions.
Fred Muremi, the forest officer, said politicians were politicising the evictions. “The law is very clear and jealously protects forest land from exploitation and this issue was solved in 1989. We are just implementing it,†Muremi said.
He denied allegations of looting the residents’ property and accepting bribes during the exercise. Isanga says the forests officers’ actions were insults to the on-going land survey by the land office. “It is their job, but I would not mind if they did it the right way.†The area covers over 62 villages, some with schools and trading centres. Residents claim the Police and forest office were violating their rights during the operations. “We want the human rights commission to investigate these incidents and save us from torture,†theysaid.
They quote the Vice- Presidents’ Office as having given them permission to stay in some areas of the forest during the 2001 presidential campaigns. The forest has been Bunya’s major source of food and income.
Discontent first surfaced in the 1980s when the Government attempted to evict the farmers. Southern Busoga Forest reserve became a hot issue in the late 1980s when peasants resisted eviction, claiming that the land was their ancestral possession before sleeping sickness broke out in the area.
The Government was forced to declare the area out of bounds for human settlement. By the 1990s, farmers had fully re-occupied the forest and had boosted the region’s farm production. When the government decided to evict farmers from the forest, thousands of families suffered and many people lost their lives at the hands of the enforcement officers.
However, the boundary issue was not solved and yet it is one of the issues rising again with the peasants insisting they are being unjustifiably evicted. The forest department insists it is on the right track.