(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is a 1 November 2000 ARTICLE 19 press release: ZANZIBAR: RIGHTS GROUP CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL ACTION FOLLOWING ELECTION DISASTER As riot police and opposition supporters clash on the streets of Zanzibar following elections which Commonwealth observers have declared a “shambles”, ARTICLE 19 today called upon the international community to take […]
(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is a 1 November 2000 ARTICLE 19 press release:
ZANZIBAR: RIGHTS GROUP CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL ACTION FOLLOWING ELECTION DISASTER
As riot police and opposition supporters clash on the streets of Zanzibar following elections which Commonwealth observers have declared a “shambles”, ARTICLE 19 today called upon the international community to take tough action to resolve the long-running political crisis on the islands.
ARTICLE 19 has been warning since April 2000 that Zanzibar’s elections would be a farce unless there was urgent reform on three urgent issues. These issues were:
* Reform of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission, which remains an instrument of government;
* The continuing harassment of opposition leaders, including ongoing trials on trumped-up treason charges(1); and
* The abuse by government of the publicly-funded media, which has pumped out pro-government propaganda throughout the election campaign.
No reforms took place and the international community largely abandoned its efforts to promote change ahead of last week’s elections following the collapse earlier this year of a 1998 Commonwealth-sponsored accord to resolve the political crisis. (2)
Jon Lunn of ARTICLE 19’s Africa Programme said:
“We welcome the declaration by the Commonwealth observer mission in Zanzibar that the elections there should be annulled. But we regret that it has taken the realisation of our worst fears to produce such strong statements.”
ARTICLE 19 is repeating the call first made in July for the international community to send a high-level delegation of representatives from the Commonwealth, the UN and the OAU to Tanzania. It should assist in scheduling new elections and creating the level playing-field which the Tanzanian and Zanzibar authorities conspired to resist this time around.
Jon Lunn concluded:
“The time has come for the spotlight to shine on the long-running failure of the Union government to discharge its responsibilities to promote and protect human rights on Zanzibar. For too long it has washed its hands of the situation and allowed Zanzibar members of the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi to run the islands as their private property. If the current crisis over the elections is not speedily addressed, there is a real danger that violence on Zanzibar will spiral out of control, with potential consequences for the mainland”.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
1. 18 leaders of the main opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF), have now been in prison for over two years on charges of treason and the government has been dragging out the trial. The CUF’s leader, Sheikh Sherif Hamad, faces equally dubious charges of assault and illegal possession of weapons following disturbances in April outside the court room during the last hearing of the treason case.
2. View ARTICLE 19’s reports of April 2000 on our website (www.article19.org) – Zanzibar: Democracy on Shaky Foundations http://www.article19.org/docimages/454.htm and Media Law and Practice in
Southern Africa: Tanzania Mainland http://www.article19.org/docimages/231.htm or contact the Africa Programme on tel. +44 20 7278 9292 for a hard copy.
