Zanzibar the focus of US human rights worries

The United States government has expressed disappointment at what it regards as a general deterioration of human rights in Tanzania last year, despite notable government efforts to engage in dialogue with the opposition. While there had been improvements in a few areas, Tanzanians continued to face serious human rights abuses, according to the the Tanzania country report for 2001 on human rights practices, released last week by the Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour. Washington's concern about human rights in Tanzania applied particularly to the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, where citizens' rights were "circumscribed severely by abuses of and limitations of" civil and political liberties, the report stated. Tanzania's human rights record was tarnished mainly by violent incidents on the Zanzibari islands of Pemba and Unguja on 26 and 27 January 2001, it said. In those incidents, between 24 and 70 people were killed, and more than 2,000 fled to neighbouring Kenya as refugees, when the police forcibly dispersed a demonstration by supporters of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF), it added. At least 22 people were shot dead on Pemba island at the time, allegedly by armed police, "in circumstances suggesting unlawful use of lethal force", according to the human rights organisation Amnesty International. The demonstrators were protesting against the results of presidential and parliamentary elections of October 2000, which, the opposition claimed had been rigged. "Police killed several persons, and members of the police regularly mistreated, threatened, and occasionally beat up suspected criminals during and after their apprehension or interrogation," the US report stated. "There are also reports that police used torture in Zanzibar." "The government infringed on citizens' rights to privacy, and limited freedom of speech and of the press, and freedom of assembly and association," it said. The Tanzanian government in January 2002 appointed an eight-member commission of inquiry to investigate the January 2001 clashes in Zanzibar. The commission, to be chaired by retired Brigadier Hashim Mbita, is due to probe the "causes and effects" of the violence, and present its findings by 31 July 2002, Throughout 2001, Tanzania's political atmosphere was marked by tension and increased police harassment of civilians in the aftermath of the Zanzibar killings, according to Helen Bisimba, executive director of the independent Dar es Salaam-based Tanzania Legal and Human Rights Centre. "Last year, the situation was not as good as in the past," Bisimba told IRIN on Friday, 15 March. "The government's attitude to the killings showed that it was not an accident. There was nothing to show that the government regretted what happened," she said. Opposition activity was also hampered by increased police brutality, according to Bisimba. "Last year was very tense. We saw increasing intolerance between the government and the opposition. The opposition is dying. There is very little freedom of expression and association." Besides the political situation, instances of mob justice against suspected criminals continued to claim dozens of lives, while widespread belief in witchcraft led to a number of killings of alleged "witches" by their "victims" and aggrieved relatives or mobs, according to the US State Department. "Government officials criticised these practices, and some arrests were made; however, most perpetrators of witch killing or mob justice eluded arrest, and the government did not take preventive measures during the year," it stated. In western Tanzania, there remained significant resentment and hostility directed against the refugee population, mostly from Burundi and Rwanda, whom officials have often accused of committing murders and robberies against local communities. "There was continuing concern over violence allegedly perpetrated by some Burundian and Rwandan refugees, although such violence has diminished since 1999," the US report noted. Prison conditions throughout Tanzania remained "harsh and life-threatening" last year, while the often "inefficient" judicial system often failed to provide expeditious and fair trials, it said. However, the US also noted that police harassment of members and supporters of political opposition had sharply declined towards the end of the year, following the signing of a reconciliation accord between the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the opposition CUF in October. Under the agreement, CCM and CCM agreed that electoral procedures in Zanzibar would be reformed; an investigation would take place into the January 2001 violence; steps would be taken to allow the safe return of all remaining refugees (many had returned earlier); and representatives of both sides would form a supervisory commission to ensure the implementation of the agreement. That agreement and the January announcement of the formation of the commission of inquiry have been cautiously welcomed by human rights groups, who consider the moves as constituting a step capable of enhancing opportunities for reconciliation between the government and the opposition. Amnesty International said in January that it welcomed the probe, but that it would be seeking assurance from the government that the inquiry would be "truly independent". "Obviously, we are happy that a commission has been set up, but we are waiting to find out more about how it will carry out its work and whether the findings will be made public," Sharon Critops, an Amnesty researcher, told IRIN at the time.