CUF calls for progress in talks

Thousands of members of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) on 22 July demanded a deadline to the ongoing talks between the party and the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the Tanzanian ‘Guardian’ newspaper reported on Monday. CUF Chairman Professor Ibrahim Lipumba said the dialogue was the only means of bringing about democracy in the country, but reiterated that CUF must be told the outcome of the talks by 31 July. If the CCM dragged out the dialogue, as it had by causing the postponement of various sessions of the talks, the CUF would withdraw and let its members decide the way forward, the ‘Guardian’ quoted Lipumba as saying. The opposition leader also reiterated CUF’s demand for fresh elections in Zanzibar, saying the October 2000 elections were neither free nor fair.

The CUF-CCM negotiations are aimed at ending a political crisis on the semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar. Already soured by CUF’s objections to the so-called “stolen elections” of 1995, relations deteriorated further when the party contested the results of parliamentary and presidential elections in October last. Relations worsened again when Zanzibar was wracked by political violence in late January, as security forces used strong-arm tactics to put down CUF demonstrations against the October 2000 elections. At that time, over 2,000 Zanzibaris fled to the Kenyan fishing village of Shimoni, south of the port city of Mombasa, though most have since been repatriated by UNHCR, without any problems reported once they were back in Zanzibar; some others have returned spontaneously, but 506 remain in Dadaab refugee camp, northeastern Kenya, refusing for the moment to return in the absence of assurances about political and constitutional developments in Zanzibar.