Through a verbal agreement, the Ethiopian government and African Parks Foundation, a private nonprofit organization based in the Netherlands, will assume management of Omo and Mago National Parks.
National parks have existed on Mursi land for over 30 years, but the Mursi have been left alone and most do not even know their land is part of a National Park.
Encompassing more than 2,400 square miles, the parks are home to approximately 20,000 tribal peoples, the majority being Mursi. The tribe is well known for the lip plates worn by the women. The lease will most likely include land between the parks, the Tama plains, forging one park called Omo/Tama/Mago.
"Now [the government] wants to take this land without our permission," said Ulikoro, a Mursi tribal member in a message seeking help from outside sources. "We cannot do anything about the national park taking this land. … Maybe the government will come and shoot us."
According to a number of Mursi men, officials from the Mago Park told them in March that they would have to abandon one of their villages on the Mago River, called Kon Ba, or there would be "a big fire in the village."
The warden of Mago National Park, interviewed last month, suggested that African Parks not only wanted the local people removed from the Omo and Mago Parks, but that it was also planning to put up an electric fence to "protect" the park from squatters and poachers. He said he personally disagreed with African Park’s desire for an electric fence because it would interrupt animal migration routes.
The government hopes African Parks will increase the area’s tourism activity and revenue. African Parks currently manages national parks in Zambia, South Africa, Malawai, and another park, Nech Sar, in Ethiopia.
Complicating matters, the area surrounding Omo and Mago parks is heavily populated by diverse armed tribes whose tense relationships often boil over into conflict.
"The Ethiopian government should be very worried about the prospects of even more violence if they go ahead with their apparent policy of removal in the Omo/Mago area," said David Turton, a British anthropologist with over 30 years experience of working among the Mursi. "Any attempt to encroach on Mursi territory will ratchet up the existing pressure on resources in the lower Omo area."
So far, neither the Ethiopian government nor African Parks has shown signs that they are worried by this prospect. According to a Canadian anthropologist currently working among the Mursi, officials from Awassa, the Southern Regional State capital, staged a "celebration" last month at the Omo Park headquarters to mark the successful demarcation of new park boundaries. As the beer flowed, the Mursi who were present were asked to "agree" to leave their land by putting their thumbprints on documents they could not read.
African Parks took over the Nech Sar park in southern Ethiopia in February. In November 2004, 463 Guji houses located inside the park boundaries were burned down by government park officials and local police. The arson was done to remove the local inhabitants from the park, according to a Refugees International report.
"We usually hear news on the radio even when a single house is burned down by criminals. We hear all different kinds of crimes reported. In our case we lost 463 houses, but it was not reported at all," said one Guji tribal member.
According to the African Parks 2004 annual report, the "resettlement of the Kore and Guji people was an internal affair of the Federal and regional governments, and African Parks had no role to play in the matter."
Refugees International said that some Guji, including those who whose houses were burned, have been resettled south of the park, along with the Kore. More than 5,000 Guji remain confined to the park’s northern extremities. The Guji say they’ve been told by the Nech Sar park officials that if they do not move voluntarily they will be forced to do so and that, once they have left, the park will be enclosed by an electric fence.
Paul van Vlissingen, the billionaire Dutchman who founded African Parks, has given assurances that his company has no intention of forcing people to move from the Omo and Mago parks and has disassociated himself from government attempts at forced eviction from Nech Sar.
"African Parks has never been and will never be involved in questions of a political nature, such as the resettlement of people," he said after the Nech Sar incident.
