AgriSol Energy LLC

AgriSol, an Iowa company, has been linked to plans to evict 160,000 Burundian refugees from Katumba and Mishamo in western Tanzania, according to “Lives on Hold,” a new report by the Oakland Institute.

"Lives on Hold," a report released today by the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and the Oakland Institute, alleges that the Iowa firm AgriSol Energy is responsible in part for human-rights abuses against more than 160,000 refugees in Tanzania — an accusation that the agricultural firm vehemently denies.

But AgriSol denies any tie between its efforts and abuses of refugees.

A new report alleges Tanzanian refugees are suffering ongoing human rights abuses, in part because of relocation efforts that have coincided with a push by an agriculture company with Iowa ties to lease land in the country.

Some of an estimated 162,000 refugees in Tanzania have had their homes and crops burned by government security officials and been arbitrarily arrested and denied free speech, according to the Oakland Institute, a California think tank.

The relationship between Iowa State University and AgriSol Energy, as revealed in more than 400 emails recently obtained by the Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request, raises fundamental questions about transparency of public institutions and the meaning of public-private partnerships.

An independent watchdog is piling pressure on the United States government to intervene in a deal whereby by US agribusiness corporation AgriSol Energy LLC is taking over 800,000 acres of land in Tanzania’s western Rukwa region.

Fourth in a series.