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Rights group condemns Kenyans` killing in Tanzania
2007-09-12 09:17:37
By NAIROBI
A Kenyan rights group said yesterday it would go to a regional court to seek redress over 11 Kenyans killed by Tanzanian police as suspected robbers.
The Oscar Foundation said the bodies of some Kenyans who were shot dead in Moshi last week bore marks of torture.
Police on Wednesday shot dead 14 people suspected to be armed robbers after they defied an order to stop at a roadblock on their way to rob a bank near Moshi.
But Oscar Foundation executive director King`ara Kamau said: `We wish to categorically state that the killings were occasioned by misinformation and lacked any intelligent information to justify the killings.`
He added that the group would take the case to the East Africa Court of Justice in Arusha `to ensure the alleged perpetrators of the killings are brought to justice.`
Extrajudicial police killings are common in many African countries, including Kenya, rights groups say.
The deaths of the Kenyans produced very different reactions
in both nations.
Many Tanzanians lauded the shootings as a necessary deterrent to Kenyan criminals crossing their border.
But in Kenya, many have called for more investigations.
`Those found to have acted against the law, used excessive force or executed Kenyans must face the full force of the law,` Kenyan daily The Standard said in an editorial.
Tanzania has far less violent crime than Kenya, whose capital Nairobi has been dubbed `Nairobbery` by foreigners.
Both nations fear crime may deter tourism in a region famous for its game parks, beaches and mountain ranges.
Tanzanian police said they recovered grenades, assault rifles and bullet-proof vests from the suspected robbers.
But Kamau said post mortem results were suspicious.
`Preliminary autopsy results of the victims of this heinous crime shows that they were shot at close range and with a high velocity rifle,` his statement said.
`We are also convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the victims were subjected to torture before being shot.`
Kenya`s ambassador to Tanzania, Boaz Mbaya, backed the police action. `There is no way Kenyan authorities can defend criminals.
In fact, some of those killed last week were on the most wanted list of criminals back home in Kenya,” he was quoted as saying by the press.
Meanwhile Our Correspondent Kasembeli Albert from Nairobi reports that Oscar Foundation yesterday claimed that some of its officials who had travel to Moshi to carry out autopsy examination on the bodies of the 14 suspects killed last week in an abortive bank robbery were temporarily locked by police in Moshi, on Monday.
The delegation`s leader, King’ara Kamau said human rights activists had petitioned the police authorities for permission to carry out post mortem on the bodies of the suspects
Kamau said the three officials had arrived at the Kilimanjaro Regional Police headquarters and sought audience with the commander, Lucas Ngohboko, when they were led to a room and locked up.
He said that a police officer demanded that they hand over their mobile phones and other particulars. `They wanted to take our finger prints and pictures, but we refused,` he said on the phone.
He said the officers calmed after they sought help at the Kenyan embassy.
It took the intervention of an embassy official only identified as Mr Resunda who arrived to have the activists released after hours in custody at the Kilimanjaro Provincial Police headquarters.
The activists had travelled to Moshi from Nairobi to carry out independent investigation into the Wednesday killings.
At the same time Oscar Foundation claimed that the family of Anne Kangara, one of the victims, was denied access to view her body at the local mortuary.
Police asked the family to get clearance from Kenyan Police or embassy.
However, when contacted for comment, the Director for Criminal Investigation, Robert Manumba, said he was not informed of the incident.
`The doors were open to anybody to see the scene of incident, thus if anybody was mistreated she or he is free to come forward and complain to police authorities,` he said.
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