Prison deaths highlight need for reform

The deaths of some 20 people in police custody on Sunday, 17 November, is proof of the need for sweeping changes in the treatment of prisoners and police suspects, a Tanzanian human rights organisation has told IRIN. The incident, in Rujewa police station in the southwestern region of Mbeya, which was the result of over 120 suspects being crammed into a cell designed to hold just 30, seems to confirm the initial findings of a recent and highly critical investigation into the performance of Tanzanian law enforcement officers. "This incident is not an isolated incident. It may be an extreme example, but many people are suffering in these ways," Helen Kijo-Bisimba, the executive director of Tanzania's Legal and Human Rights Centre, said on 22 November. "I see the government has sacked some of the officers, but that is not enough. Not only should the minister resign, but also something needs to be done, and all aspects of the government's law enforcement authorities need to be reviewed," she said. Citing a lack of funding, poor living conditions and disrespect for human rights in prisons, Kijo-Bisimba said the government would have to work out "modalities of ensuring that this did not happen again". Given the growing problem of overcrowding and the fact that Sunday's victims were suspects waiting to go to court, the issue of the right to bail should also be examined, she added. While officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs have declined to comment on the incident, the Director of Criminal Investigations has visited the prison, and an official investigation has been launched. The five officers reportedly responsible for the incident have been sacked and, on 21 November, were officially charged with murder. Commentators noted that the reason the prosecution had charged the police officers with murder rather than manslaughter could be an attempt to convince people of the government's commitment to change, and also of a lack of tolerance of police abuses. However, Kijo-Bisimba was sceptical. "I know the trends in this country and I'm not so sure that there will be change as, when something like this happens, it is soon forgotten and everything carries on as before. This time we really have to follow up on this so there is change," she concluded. These changes were also called for in a report on the first phase of an investigation into the ability of Tanzanian law enforcement officers to conduct conflict mediation and security matters, commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme and recently carried out by consultants from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. "Against a backdrop of overcrowding, and the fact that the new facility construction and renovation have not occurred to any degree of significance for decades, the Tanzanian Prisons Service faces problems that are of a critical nature and which directly and systematically contribute to inhuman conditions and the violation of prisoner rights," the reports states. The findings highlight overcrowding - as high as 1,000 percent in some prisons - and the issue of lack of facilities for remand prisoners, who "in some non-remand facilities comprise 90 percent of the prisoner population". The report warns that "it is widely viewed that until the issue of prison overcrowding is addressed, deterioration of the current situation is not only likely to continue, but even more likely to worsen". A more in-depth study is due to be published early next month.