The Tanzanian government has not held security forces and aligned militia accountable for killings in Zanzibar during the 2020 elections, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch research has found that at least 14 people died and 55 were injured, as police, soldiers, and armed men in civilian clothes teargassed and shot at crowds, between October 26 and 30, 2020. The armed men also arbitrarily arrested, detained, and tortured opposition supporters on Zanzibar’s main islands of Unguja and Pemba. Neither the Tanzanian central authorities nor Zanzibari authorities have acknowledged, let alone investigated, the full scale and toll of the violence, despite a public outcry within the country, and calls for investigations, including by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“Tanzania’s authorities have not taken steps to ensure justice for family members of those who died, and survivors of the serious abuses that marred Zanzibar’s 2020 elections,” said Oryem Nyeko, Tanzania researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The leaders of both Zanzibar and Tanzania should demonstrate their commitment to justice by ensuring accountability and compensation for survivors and the families of those who died at the hands of government security forces.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 57 people by phone between October 2020 and November 2021, including victims and witnesses, journalists, and opposition party officials about election-related violence in Zanzibar, the semiautonomous archipelago.
Around October 26, 2020, the Tanzanian government deployed an estimated 10,000 security forces to Unguja and Pemba islands in Zanzibar, just before Zanzibar’s two-day voting period on October 27 and 28. The residents interviewed said that security forces patrolled the streets, harassed residents and beat them, brandishing guns and chasing them away from public spaces, broke into homes, and indiscriminately fired teargas and live bullets. They imposed and enforced curfews, beating those who did not comply, and arbitrarily arrested residents, detaining some in unofficial sites for weeks. This climate of fear caused many people to flee affected areas across Zanzibar. “Those who couldn’t run were beaten,” said a 59-year-old resident of Nungwi, Unguja.
On the evenings of October 26, 27, and 28 security forces shot into crowds near polling places on Pemba Island, killing at least nine people, including a 16-year-old student and a pregnant woman. On October 28 the violence and the chaos intensified as Zanzibar Electoral Commission officials counted the votes and the “Mazombi,” a Zanzibar government-aligned militia group, chased and beat people, including those who came to witness the counting.
Almost all the witnesses interviewed said they did not report the killings because of the climate of fear brought on by the violence. Family members said when they did report killings to the police and other authorities, nothing came of it. One man said that the police fatally shot his 25-year-old son in the chest in the Kangagani village square in Pemba between 9 and 10 p.m. on October 27. He reported the shooting to a community leader and the police. He buried his son the next day, alongside two others who were killed that night. Human Rights Watch found that the police have still not taken any action.
The Zanzibar authorities also attempted to control media coverage of abuses by blocking accredited journalists from filming security officials and entering some polling places. Police detained three journalists covering an opposition protest for an hour on October 29 in Zanzibar City, Unguja.
On October 29 the Zanzibar Electoral Commission announced that Hussein Ali Mwinyi, of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, had won the election for president of Zanzibar and that John Magufuli, also of the CCM, had been re-elected president of Tanzania.
The only official acknowledgment of the killings came on November 11, 2020, from the Tanzanian inspector general of police, Simon Sirro, who told the media that only two people had died during “sporadic violence” on October 26 and that opposition supporters killed a policeman on October 28. He did not address allegations of police involvement in the killings.
Human Rights Watch wrote letters to the offices of the presidents of Tanzania and Zanzibar, and to the Tanzania police force, to share findings and ask about the steps the authorities have taken to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by police officers, soldiers, and militia during the Zanzibar election, but has yet to receive a response.
Zanzibar has experienced election-related violence in the past, especially during the 2000 and 2015 elections. “Every five years, people are killed and maimed,” said a resident of Pandani, Pemba. “This happens every election, and always after the elections, we don’t sleep at home.”
Domestic, regional, and international human rights standards, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, prohibit the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials. Such standards enshrine the right to a remedy for gross human rights violations. Under the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, security forces may use force only in proportion to the seriousness of the offense, and the intentional use of lethal force is permitted only when strictly unavoidable to protect life.
“It is important to bring the cycles of election-related violence in Zanzibar to an end,” Nyeko said. “For this to happen, the Tanzanian and Zanzibari authorities should take urgent steps to rein in security forces and ensure justice.”
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
