Police in northwestern Tanzania have arrested four villagers in Hanang District, after they criticized a controversial oil pipeline being built through the area, in what activists say is just the latest instance of harassment of critics of the project. Gabrieli Daudi, Tiofili Israeli, Marseli Martini and Kamili Fabiano were arrested on June 2 after publicly sharing their grievances over the negative impacts of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) at a press conference organized by Ugandan and Tanzanian civil society groups on Africa Day, May 25. A fifth person from Hanang District, community leader Damiano Malle, also spoke at that event but was not arrested. The four were released without charge after a night in detention. “They were arrested because they spoke to the media about their dissatisfaction with compensation of the project-affected persons [PAPs],” Richard Senkondo, executive director of the Dar es Salaam-based Organization for Community Engagement (OCE), told Mongabay. “They were also expressing concerns over additional lands being taken away from them without agreements, and harassment by Tanzanian police.” Pain along the pipeline EACOP is a 1,440-kilometer (895-mile) pipeline under construction from the shores of Lake Albert in Uganda to the Tanzanian port of Tanga. Its opponents argue that the pipeline violates national and international laws protecting human rights and the environment, campaigning against it both in its host countries and internationally. Pipeline project subcontractors purchased a strip of land that cuts through the middle of Elizabeth Ayebare’s family’s farm in 2018, but never compensated them as…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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