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Dar es Salaam demonstrations fail to materialise

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Vitamin A deficiency in Tanzania has been declared a public health concern
    NAIROBI

    Christian church services went ahead peacefully at the weekend as reported threats from radical Muslims to disrupt them in retaliation for the government banning a planned Muslim demonstration on Friday, 31 August, failed to materialise. The city had been braced for demonstrations after the ‘Ijumaa’ prayers on Friday, as Muslim zealots had threatened to stage demonstrations with a view to securing the release of 41 people detained after clashes with police a week earlier. Severe warnings by police and senior politicians that the police had been authorised to use massive force, as well as calls for calm by religious leaders, seemed to have persuaded would-be demonstrators not to appear, according to Dar es Salaam residents. Armed police then kept a watchful eye on Christian services on Sunday but the day passed without trouble.

    The Tanzanian authorities were shaken by the eruption of violence in the streets of Dar es Salaam on Friday 24 August, when riot police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of mainly Islamic protesters demonstrating against the conviction in Morogoro District of 28-year-old Khamis Rajab Dibagula for defaming Christianity. The High Court later intervened to quash Dibagula’s jail sentence. Over 170 people were arrested and 41 charged on several counts, including taking part in an illegal gathering, arson and causing a public disturbance. Much of the local reaction to the unrest in Dar es Salaam has focused on perceived police brutality in using tear gas and water cannon, and then beating demonstrators as they tried to march, on 24 August, according to informed sources. In addition, there has been concern about firebomb attacks on ruling party (CCM) offices, which appeared to suggest a political agenda at play, and - underlying all that - certain underlying tensions between the Muslim and Christian communities of Tanzania that have become apparent in the episode.

    [for more details, see separate IRIN story of 4 September headlined “TANZANIA: Latest clashes reveal underlying religious tensions” at:
    http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/index.phtml

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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