TANZANIA: Rights group slams riot control tactics

TANZANIA: Rights group slams riot control tactics

NAIROBI, 19 February (IRIN) - A local human rights group has accused the
Tanzanian police of committing human rights violations during last week's
riots involving Muslim youths in Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian capital, in
which two people were killed.

Ezekiel Masanja, acting director of the Tanzania Legal and Human Rights
Centre told IRIN on Tuesday that his organisation had demanded a public
apology from police authorities for the "violations they had committed"
during and after the riots, as well as the resignation of top police
officers.

"The police mistreated people. There were gross violations, they broke
into houses and there was harassment of women and children. The police
commissioner should take responsibility for that," Masanja said.

The riots erupted after fighting between two rival Muslim factions at the
Mwembechai mosque, in Dar es Salaam, according to Masanja. The BBC
reported on Thursday that the two groups had been "at loggerheads" over
use and control of the Mwembechai mosque for a service to commemorate two
people who had died in the prayer house during riots in 1998.

Riot police used live bullets, as well as dozens of tear-gas canisters, to
disperse groups of youths who were hurling stones at them in different
streets around the mosque, according to the Guardian newspaper.

Up to 53 persons have been arrested by police in connection with
Wednesday's riots in the Magomeni Mwembechai area, and 23 have appeared in
court. The remaining 30 detainees had yet to be charged, the paper
reported.

Two Islamic leaders, Sheikh Ponda Isa and Sheikh Musa Kandecha, were among
seven others who appeared in court on Monday charged with the murder of
the two people - one police officer and one civilian - during the
violence, and were remanded in custody until 4 March, the Guardian
reported on Tuesday.

Alfred Tibaigana, Dar es Salaam regional police commander and senior
assistant commissioner of police, admitted that 16 children and 17 women
were among those arrested in the scuffle, but said they were released
after being cleared of any involvement in the riots, according to the
paper. Tibaigana, however, did not reveal the names of the other arrested
persons except the two leaders, the Guardian said.

According to Masanja, the conduct of Tanzanian police has been changing
over the last decade, and officers were "developing a culture of
brutality".

Tanzania's human rights record came under the spotlight during violent
clashes between riot police and supporters of the opposition Civic United
Front in Zanzibar in January 2001, in which at least 22 people were
killed.

Amnesty International said in a press statement in November 2001 that it
had set out details, in a memorandum sent to the governments of Tanzania
and Zanzibar, of human rights violations by the security forces during the
January clashes, including killings, mass arrests, torture and rape.
[ENDS]

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