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KOLONGO APPEAL
20 Nov 2010

KOLONGOTOMO FARMERS FORUM ON LAND
GRABS IN MALI
KOLONGO APPEAL


We, the farmers belonging to the Collective of Farmer Organisations and the
Coalition of the Forum of Civil Society Organisations, having come from every
administrative region of Mali, and having met on 20 November 2010 at the
Kologontomo Forum on agricultural land grabs in Mali, launch the following appeal:


- Responding to demand from farmer organisations and their members in the
Office du Niger area;


- Having noted farmers’ lack of tenure security in the Office du Niger area, and
the difficulty of obtaining information about Government policy on large-scale
allocations of agricultural land to foreign investors;


- In light of the provisions of the Framework Law on Agriculture regarding
agricultural land;


- In light of the flagrant violations of citizens’ and human rights through
numerous shocking attacks on the physical and moral integrity of rural
populations in developed areas of the Office du Niger;


- In light of the sudden and brutal occupations of agricultural lands by foreign
and national investors to the detriment of family farms, which need access to
large amounts of agricultural land and secure tenure of this land;


- In view of the fact that the allocation of vast tracts of agricultural land to
private investors is undermining national sovereignty and will contribute to the
almost inevitable disappearance of family farming.


As members of farmer organisations and participants in the Kolongo civil
society forum, we hereby:


o Urge the Government to respect the provisions of the Framework
Law on Agriculture through the concerted adoption of a policy on
agricultural lands (article 77);


o Remind the Government that every Malian citizen has the right to
land ownership under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and
that Mali must respect these rights;


o Remind the Government that all the land, water, forests and natural
resources in Mali constitute part of the national heritage and are
inalienable;


o Encourage the Government and the Office du Niger to freeze
ongoing works to develop disputed sites and suspend transactions and/or
talks until conflicts have been resolved;


o Urge the Government to engage in policy dialogue with farmers, by
organising a national round table to discuss the issue of agricultural
lands and its investment policy for this sector, and inform the public
about these matters;


o Put in place a committee to follow up the recommendations of the
Kolongotomo Farmer Forum (FPK);


o Mandate this committee to:

1. Identify and document cases where farmers have been dispossessed of their land
and citizens’ human rights have been violated, in addition to those cases raised
at the Forum;


2. Call upon the services of a lawyer to follow up cases where the physical and
moral integrity of farmers has been violated as a result of Mr Modibo Keita’s
actions, and producers’ physical and intangible assets have been destroyed;


3. Engage in consultations with the Office du Niger regarding compensation for
the victims of Samandougou;


4. Widely disseminate information about land grabbing among the public at home
and abroad;


5. As a last resort, having exhausted all attempts to find a solution through policy
dialogue, call upon various courts and special Citizens Commission(s) on
Human Rights to defend the material and moral interests of agricultural
producers: those under Malian jurisdiction, the ECOWAS Court of Justice, the
International Court of Human Rights in Geneva, and others.


Kolongotomo, 20 November 2010
The Forum


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