New opportunity for Zanzibar reconciliation //Yearender//

There is renewed optimism for political stability within the islands of Zanzibar, following the signing last week of an agreement on the implementation of the October 2001 reconciliation accord between Tanzania's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party and the opposition Civic United Front (CUF), according to sources in the capital, Dar es Salaam. The CCM and CUF last week signed an agreement to persevere with the implementation of the October accord. The new, seven-point agreement was signed on Thursday 3 January by the secretaries-general of the two parties, Phillip Mangula of CCM and Seif Sharif Hamad of CUF. This agreement is the outcome of talks, during which the two sides resolved the differences which had arisen after the Zanzibar government decided to amend the October accord without consulting CUF, according to news agency reports. The amendments had sought to establish a presidential commission to oversee implementation of the accord, which had been reached after a dialogue between the two parties lasting seven and a half months, they said. Pascal Shija, editor of Tanzania's leading Guardian newspaper, told IRIN on Monday that the October agreement had proved to be a failure, largely because the negotiations which preceded its signing had been inadequate. "I think now it's going to work. Our hope now is that they will properly implement the agreement," Shija said. The joint statement issued by the two parties last week says that the position now adopted is "based on the principle that if something has been agreed upon by two parties, it is not correct to change it without prior consultation and agreement with the two parties", news organisations reported. The CCM and CUF secretaries-general have now agreed "that the argument which ensued between the two parties over the [October] accord has now come to an end" and that "implementation of the accord should continue". Zanzibar signed an act of agreement with Tanganyika (which had gained independence in 1961) in April 1964, and the united country was named Tanzania in October of that year. Growing dissatisfaction with the union through the late 1970s and 1980s gave rise to a political crisis in 1984, amid a worsening economic situation and calls for greater autonomy for the islands. That political crisis continued to grow through the 1990s, with the union government assuming greater responsibility in key areas, and was exacerbated by alleged government rigging of the first multiparty elections in 1995, won by CCM by a narrow margin, and referred to by CUF - which advocates greater autonomy for Zanzibar - as "the stolen elections". During 1996, donor countries began to suspend aid disbursements to Zanzibar (still not fully restored), in view of a clampdown on the CUF, the continuing political deadlock on the islands and alleged human rights abuses by the authorities against members of CUF. A political reconciliation agreement brokered by a Commonwealth special envoy, Dr Moses Anafu, in June 1999 - to end the protracted political feuding which had been raging since the 1995 elections, and allow free and fair elections planned for 2000 - provided for reform of the Zanzibar electoral commission, a review of the constitutional and electoral laws, and compensation for property destroyed during the political crisis. CUF deputies took up 24 seats in the Zanzibari assembly, which they had previously boycotted, in return for the promise of constitutional, judicial and electoral reform, but CCM subsequently reneged on the agreement, claiming that any reforms would have to wait until after the October 2000 elections, according to diplomatic sources. Political tension was again exacerbated by the deployment of army troops in Zanzibar in the run-up to the October elections, alleged suppression of the CUF and irregularities affecting the elections, which in turn led to violent political clashes around CUF demonstrations on the Zanzibari islands of Unguja and Pemba in January 2001. At least 22 people were shot dead by armed police on Pemba in circumstances suggesting unlawful use of lethal force, according to the human rights organisation Amnesty International. There were also mass arrests, and some of those arrested were subjected to torture and ill-treatment, it said. Amnesty said in a press statement in November 2001 that it had set out details, in a memorandum sent to the governments of Tanzania and semi-autonomous Zanzibar, of human rights violations by the security forces during the January clashes, including killings, mass arrests, torture and rape. The CCM-CUF reconciliation agreement of October 2001 was yet another attempt to address the political crisis in Zanzibar In his New Year message to the nation, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa expressed support for the October accord, saying that preparations to implement it were in place and that the Union (mainland and islands) and Isles (Zanzibari) governments were committed to effecting this. "I still believe that by reaching an agreement, which was the most difficult assignment, we will be able to identify and honour important issues, and chart out implementation earnestly for our political gains," Mkapa added. The agreement is, however, unlikely to change the current political union arrangement between the Tanzanian mainland and the Isles governments, according to Shija. He attributed the political problems in the Isles to the underdevelopment of spice-rich Pemba, whose residents feel exploited by the larger and more developed Unguja islands. "In Pemba, the people are more politically aggressive, because they are underdeveloped. The money from their cloves has been used to develop roads and infrastructure in Unguja," Shija told IRIN. Over 2,000 Zanzibaris who fled to Kenya at the time of the political clashes in late January last year began going home in May 2001, except for 194 who had moved from Kenya to Somalia, according to the UN refugee agency. Those who returned to Zanzibar, including a number of CUF leaders and MPs, were seen by a senior protection officer between 21 and 24 December, said Paul Stromberg, regional spokesman at the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. "So far, there is no indication of harassment or any attention being paid to them since the returns started in May last year," he told IRIN on Monday.