|
FFU teargas demonstrators
2005-11-01 07:41:13
By Guardian Reporters and Agencies
Field Force Unit (FFU) paramilitary force lobbed yesterday teargas in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar streets to disperse supporters of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) who had embarked on early celebrations claiming victory in Sunday’s Zanzibar general election.
Business in some parts of Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar town came to standstill as rowdy supporters danced and sang in the streets, while in Dar es Salaam the supporters marched towards the State House to press for the release of the results of the elections.
The law enforcers arrested at least 15 people at Darajani in Zanzibar in the morning in connection with the premature celebration of election outcome in Mji Mkongwe constituency.
At around 1pm, a group of demonstrators who carried placards and a CUF flag in Dar es Salaam tried to make their way to the State House to put pressure on the government to release the results.
However, the march, which started at Buguruni area through Uhuru Road to Ilala and Kariakoo, was stopped by the FFU at the Uhuru and Msimbazi road junction, where teargas was used to disperse the defiant marchers.
The teargas incident sent the demonstrators scampering to safety with the FFU men in pursuit. Some sought refuge in shops and offices at Kariakoo.
Shops at Kariakoo and its vicinity were hurriedly closed amid fears that looters would take advantage of the chaos to loot.
City residents, who were caught unawares hurriedly crammed into buses to escape the pandemonium as FFU men patrolled the streets to put out further demonstrations.
Users of Uhuru Road were caught up in a traffic snarl up, which lasted about two hours before order returned at around 2.30pm.
In Zanzibar, security forces used teargas, water cannons and batons to disperse protestors in a second day of violence over an election.
CUF claimed early victory saying it had secured more than two-thirds of the votes counted so far.
Early results showed that the party was in the lead with 54.2 per cent of the votes, while CCM was in second position with 45.7 per cent.
CCM also claimed it was in the lead with 50 seats in the House of Representatives and said it was confident of clinching the victory.
Reuters reporters witnessed about 20 people being bundled into police vans and whisked away. Some were battered in full view of foreign media and international election observers out in force on the islands.
’’We have freedom at last after 40 years,’’ said Mohamed Ahmed, 21, holding a poster of CUF leader Seif Shariff Hamad.
’’We have won. Goodbye CCM!’’ sang others.
Hamad, whose party wants privatisation and democratic reforms, said the results his party gave out were based on result sheets seen by his agents.
’’We are winning these elections despite the irregularities,’’ he said at his party headquarters.
CCM spokesman Vuai Ali Vuai said that the celebrations were premature. ’’Our friends want to create chaos by telling the world the results before they are tallied,” he told Reuters.
Foreign observers said the violence was disappointing, but cautioned it may have been localised in Stone Town.
There were reports of irregularities, but not of more violence across the rest of the main island Unguja and the second island Pemba.
The African Union gave the poll a guarded endorsement. ’’In spite of incidents and accounts of irregularities, we think that the election largely went well,’’ AU observer Baleke Mbete said.
|
