Be calm, envoy counsels detained Tanzanians

DAILY NEWS Reporter

DEPUTY Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Co-operation, Ambassador Ramadhan Mwinyi

DEPUTY Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Co-operation, Ambassador Ramadhan Mwinyi, has asked the eight Tanzanians remanded at Mzuzu Prison in Malawi for criminal trespass at a uranium mine, to remain calm as the government works to resolve the matter.

The envoy visited the Tanzanians yesterday accompanied by the Ruvuma Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS), Hassan Bendekeya and other officials from the ministry and the Tanzania High Commission in Malawi. “There are ongoing discussions at various levels between the governments of Tanzania and Malawi.

Hopes are high that the matter will be resolved in the near future,” Amb. Mwinyi told the Tanzanians who have been in custody in Malawi since December, last year. He arrived in Lilongwe to take part in the Joint Permanent Commission for Co-operation (JPCC) between the two countries.

He travelled 400 kilometres from the Malawian capital of Lilongwe to Mzuzu Prison where the Tanzanians are being remanded.

“I am here to inform you that efforts are underway at various levels between the two governments to resolve the matter,” he said. “Just recently when President John Magufuli and his Malawian counterpart , Prof Peter Mutharika, met on the sidelines of the African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, your detention is among issues discussed by the two leaders.”

A statement issued by the foreign ministry’s communication unit said Amb. Mwinyi was pleased to find the detained Tanzanians in good health. “My visit today and previous ones by officials from Tanzania shows that the Fifth Phase Government under Dr Magufuli is committed to serve people of all social status whenever they are,” he said. The eight Tanzanians, including two women, remain in custody in Malawi charged with criminal trespass in that country’s Kayerekera Uranium Mine.

Officials from Malawi suspected the Tanzanians for ‘spying’ at the mine. It was reported that the eight were arrested on suspicion that they were sent by the government of Tanzania to find out whether Malawi was making nuclear weapons from the uranium mine.

It has since then been learned that the eight are farmers and artisanal miners who travelled to Malawi under the Catholic Church’s non-governmental organization (NGO), Caritas, who were on a study tour on effects of uranium mining.