Uganda - evicted farmers claim their rights

In August 2001 the Ugandan army violently expelled more than 2,000 small farmers from their land in the Mubende district to lease it to Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd., a subsidiary of the German Neumann Kaffee Gruppe.
Though the evicted even filed a court case against the Ugandan government and Kaweri, they have not received any adequate compensation. Currently, many of the evictees are living on the border of the plantation and have constructed makeshift homes there. But they do not have enough land for farming. Their right to feed themselves is therefore still being violated.

Please support this petition to Mr. Neumann, head of the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe:


Dear Mr. Neumann,

On the 24th of August 2001 you inaugurated jointly with the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni the coffee plantation run by your subsidiary Kaweri Coffee Plantation Ltd. The government of Uganda had leased the land to Kaweri. Your demand that the land had to be free of any inhabitants was met by the government of Uganda in a brutal way: Between the 17th and the 21st of August 2001 the Ugandan army forcibly evicted the 2000 inhabitants and destroyed their homes and their farmlands. For at least part of the lands the expropriation by the Ugandan government was illegal. So far the evicted persons have not received any adequate compensation for their lands and properties lost and for their sufferings. They are still living in rather difficult circumstances.
Your company claims to be promoting the sustainable production of coffee. Still you are profiting from the given situation in Mubende.

I therefore kindly ask you

to make best use of the influence you have on the government of Uganda, so that the evicted persons will be compensated for any damage caused by the army of Uganda during the eviction and
to compensate the evicted persons for the damage caused by Kaweri to their farmlands and fruit trees after the eviction.