Landgrabs at  gunpoint escalate in Uganda as the operations of a defender of affected communities are suspended

On Friday, 20th August, Uganda's Non-Governmental Organization Bureau suspended 54 organizations for alleged 'non-compliance'. However for multinationals it was time to merry-make as their ‘nemesis’, Witness-Radio, has been cornered.   

Witness Radio - Uganda is a not-for-profit organization that facilitates the provision of legal representation and support to poor and vulnerable victims of land grabs financed by development financing.   

Forest dweller Utpal Nokrek, who is now at 32, has been restricted to a wheelchair for 13 years.

It was 3 January 2004 when Utpal was shot during clashes between the forest dwellers and police over acquisition of thousands of acres of forest land by the government in the name of an eco-park at Tangail's Madhupur forest.

"As the forest dwellers of Garo and Koch communities protested the eco-park project, rangers and police opened fire. I was shot during the clashes," Utpal said.

"I would come back to live here if I could," said Altair Guimarães, plucking a guava from a fruit tree that survived the re-development of Rio de Janeiro's once-thriving Vila Autodromo community, all but razed by the 2016 Olympics project.

Guimarães, 61, was evicted from his home two years ago and today the trees, a church and two rows of small white houses are all that remain of the neighbourhood on Rio's western fringe.