VI. THE AFTERMATH: VIOLATIONS CONTINUE

Assaults on the Wounded and Those Assisting the Wounded

Police continued to fire, even at people who were clearly wounded and posed no threat to them. In some cases, security officers approached and extrajudicially executed injured persons who were lying on the ground and defenseless, as in Wete. In Wete, police also fired on those attempting to carry wounded victims from the scene. In Chake Chake, Micheweni and elsewhere, police prevented people from taking the wounded or dead bodies of those whom they knew.

One fifty-year-old schoolteacher in Wete saw two of his relatives shot at the roundabout, one in the arm and the other in both legs, one by a police officer and the other by a coastguard officer. "One man on my left was caught by a bullet and fell down. When I wanted to drag him away, a policeman said, `If you touch him I will kill you.'"¹¹⁶ Another man who had come from Gando into the town saw bodies bear the government flats:

When we reached town...we found corpses that had already been shot, scattered about the road. I came across four bodies. One of them died in my arms. I took it because I wanted to see if the person was not so badly injured, and take him and hide him and make arrangements for him to get treatment. I saw that his intestines were hanging out; he was finished. I found another who was stretched out. I found he was also shot in the stomach. It was like a huge boil, swelling and the intestines poking out, but I thought he could get better. So I tried to pick him up, but he was shot again with more than seven bullets while I was holding him and trying to drag him away. That's when the two bullets went through my coat. I dropped him. I left him there and I ran away. He died. Those other two corpses I didn't reach. On the road I had already passed two corpses being carried away. There with my own eyes I saw four more.¹¹⁷

In Kipangani, Wete, police shot a seventeen-year-old named Abeid near the central market, then prevented his relatives from helping him, leaving him to die on the street. Abeid had left his home that morning to buy bread but was stopped by five coastguard officers. According to a witness: "They made him squat and leap like a frog. Then they told him to run away. He was running away when they shot him."¹¹⁸ Badly wounded, Abeid managed to seek refuge in a nearby house. Three relatives tried to fetch and assist him, but they too came under fire:

Abeid was in the house, lying on the ground. I called to him, and he said, "Yes my brother, I am dying. I'm in pain." He showed me his stomach and his back. We put him on a rope bed and were taking him home. We crossed the street near the Friday Mosque and the KMKM came out. They said, "Stop!" and shot about six rounds into the air with their guns. We didn't agree to stop. Abeid was dying. But they kept shooting, and finally one of us dropped his end of the bed and ran away. I slipped into a nearby house and watched. I heard the KMKM talking to Abeid. They said, "You see? Do you see what happens when you follow CUF? They've run away and left you, and now you're dying. Look, you're dying." They dragged his body to the middle of the road and left him there in the sun until he died.¹¹⁹

Denial of Medical Care to Wounded

Many of the hundreds injured by the police were initially unable or unwilling to seek medical care for their wounds, including broken bones and bullet injuries, at any of the three government hospitals on Pemba. Along the roads in Pemba, members of the security forces turned away cars carrying wounded people or else arrested those wounded, but denied them medical treatment. Hospital staff were reportedly ordered not to send out ambulances, and in some cases, police deployed at hospitals tried to prevent doctors from treating the wounded. Many of the wounded were obliged to seek treatment from traditional healers, or were taken by boat, often days later, to Mombasa, Kenya, for medical treatment. In northern Pemba, over 200 people who had been wounded went without medical treatment for days, hiding in villages far from their homes for fear of arrest. At its Unguja Island headquarters, the CUF provided a doctor and medicines some of those injured. Some of the wounded, however, were taken to hospital by police in the days after the demonstrations.

In Tanzania, written police authorization is required before state-run hospitals will treat injuries such as broken bones, bullet or other serious wounds, on the grounds that the police need to be informed when a person requiring hospital; treatment may be the victim or perpetrator of a violent crime. Thus, in order to obtain hospital treatment, a person suffering such injury must first obtain an official form (a "PF-3") from the police confirming that they have been informed. Following the Zanzibar demonstrations, this requirement of first reporting to the police deterred wounded people from seeking needed hospital treatment for fear that the police would simply arrest them.

Amid widespread allegations of denial of medical attention to the wounded, Tanzania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation stated in a press release on January 30, 2001:

The hospital in Pemba administers treatment to everyone without discrimination or conditions of any kind. There are reports that some followers of CUF who were injured during the disturbance that they caused are afraid to go to the hospital for fear of being arrested by the police. The government wishes to reassure them that it has no intention of arresting them.¹²⁰

Despite this assurance, Human Rights Watch was informed of many cases in which Tanzanian security forces had prevented people from taking wounded people to hospital. According to one, a woman who had borrowed a car in order to convey four wounded people to hospital in Wete stated:

We asked for the loan of a car so that we could take the wounded to hospital. When we reached the main road we were stopped by police. "Where are you going?" We told them that we were taking wounded to the hospital. They pointed a pistol at us and told us, "Reverse the car or we will finish everyone who is in the car." We had no option but to reverse the car.¹²¹

Another, a man who sought to take six wounded people from Jadida to Wete hospital at 9:00 a.m. on January 27, 2001, reported a similar experience:

When I arrived quite close to the hospital, near the Friday Mosque, the police stopped the car [One policeman] said, "Where are you going?" I replied, "I'm going to the hospital." He asked what I had in my car, and I said, "Wounded." Then he looked into the back of the car, saw the other people in the car and told me to go back where I came from. I thought he wasn't serious, and began to move forward, then he took out his gun placed it at the window and said, "If you move, I shoot."...We had to go back.¹²²

In Micheweni, Rashid Khaled, a former CUF member of Zanzibar's House of Representatives, volunteered his car to take four wounded people to Chake Chake hospital as the demonstration broke up. One of the four died while being placed in the car, but Khaled and his companions then drove toward Chake Chake with the three wounded and the dead body until they were stopped by a police roadblock at Machomanne. Here, seeing that there were wounded in the car, a police officer seized the vehicle's ignition key, ordered the occupants out of the car and told his men to beat them. They were made to lie on the ground and were then beaten on the back and shoulders with clubs, and told: "You have done your demonstration, and you have already killed your fellow demonstrators. Now you want to take them to the hospital to say that we are the ones who killed them!" Khaled and the others, including the three wounded, were then taken to Chake Chake police station and charged with demonstrating illegally and the murder of a police officer. The wounded were subsequently transferred to the hospital later that day. The criminal charges against them were eventually dropped as part of the October 2001 agreement between the government and CUF.¹²³

Police were deployed at hospitals and in some cases sought to intimidate medical staff and interfere with their work. At first, Wete hospital's ambulance went out unhindered to pick up wounded and transfer some patients, including a man who had been shot in the hand, a woman with a bullet in her ankle and a third person who had been shot in the pelvis, to Mkoani hospital in south Pemba, and the ambulance was able to pass through police roadblocks without interference. Later, however, the hospital administration instructed medical staff that the ambulance should make no further trips out of the town, although this order was apparently ignored.¹²⁴ The police then began to harass ambulance workers as they continued to pick up the wounded around Wete. One witness recounted:

I was in a house close by and I saw the ambulance workers being yelled at by the police. The police said, "What's the point of taking these people? Don't take them." And the ambulance went away. So we took the injured on rope beds to the sea and sent them to Mombasa [Kenya].¹²⁵

Throughout the week, Wete's hospital remained under heavy guard. A woman who was shot in the leg recalled groups of police patrolling the women's ward:

There was very tight security. The police insulted us. They said we weren't human beings. Five or six of them came in and aimed their rifles at us. They threatened to finish us off, and told us that we were not worth the treatment we were getting."¹²⁶

Another woman said she was accompanied to the toilet by an armed policeman who insisted on watching her urinate.¹²⁷ All patients with bullet wounds were made to sign police statements and charged with either participation in an illegal demonstration or murder of a police officer. Many were released from the hospital directly into police custody.

Of all Pemba's hospitals, Abdallah Mzee Hospital in Mkoani was the quietest throughout the months that followed the demonstrations although it is managed by a Chinese medical team and is the only hospital in Pemba with a functioning operating theatre and possesses more plentiful medical supplies. Those who were treated there for wounds sustained in the demonstrations were charged with illegal conduct and made to sign statements by police while in the hospital, although the Chinese medical staff frequently intervened to stop police interrogating or harassing patients. One patient who spent two months at the hospital reported:

There were about ten policemen on the grounds, from Kengeja, Mtambile, and Mkoani. Four police officers would patrol the ward. They came in three shifts. After one and a half months, they were reduced to three per ward, then two, with only one of them armed. Some of the police in the hospital were local and they were not too bad. But there was one from the mainland, and he was very cruel.¹²⁸

Police beat a number of those injured in the demonstrations in custody after detaining them, particularly when they were brought to police stations. At the entrances of Chake Chake, Wete, and Madema police stations, and at Wete prison, police lined up and assaulted detainees as they filed in. One detainee from Mtambwe, Wete, told Human Rights Watch that he begged not to be beaten as he had already sustained a gunshot wound to the arm and a machete cut to his head, but prison guards told him: "We want you to die; you don't need treatment if you're going to die." After three days in prison, he was allowed to go to the prison clinic; there, the government doctor told him: "We want you to die; we want all Pembans to die,"¹²⁹ but did treat him with antibiotics.

One detainee told Human Rights Watch that he had been held at Madema police station, Zanzibar Island, for five days without receiving any medical care although he had received serious injuries.¹³⁰ Another informant recounted: "They arrested me and put me in jail at Malindi police station. There was no food. Maybe you had food brought from home; sometimes they [the police] ate it, sometimes they threw it on the floor, sometimes they gave it to you."¹³¹ In a further case, a detainee who had been beaten unconscious and arrested in Micheweni said he was held for five days at the police station without receiving any medical assistance, although on the day following the demonstration he was issued with a police form to enable him to obtain treatment at the hospital in Mkoani, only for this to be taken away again by police who them returned him to the cells at Micheweni police station. Four days later he was taken to court and sent to prison for another twenty-eight days, also during which he received no medical treatment.¹³²

There were some notable exceptions to this pattern of denial of treatment and abuse. Acting on his own initiative, one police officer at Madema police station took three groups of prisoners to hospital, some of whom were accepted while others were turned away, before he was stopped by other police. The officer concerned was later suspended.¹³³

Some of those wounded were wary of seeking assistance from the Tanzanian Red Cross Society (TRCS), in which prominent members of the ruling CCM hold senior positions, perceiving it to be linked to the government.¹³⁴ Further, virtually all of Pemba's nearly seventy TRCS Pemban volunteers belonged to the CCM, adding to this perception. This hindered the ability of TRCS staff who came from Dar-es-Salaam to assist the wounded, although a Wete hospital worker told Human Rights Watch: "The TRCS was active. They collected bodies throughout Pemba. When they came from Dar [-es-Salaam] to Wete they did good work. The problem is that people here don't trust them."¹³⁵ Another observer noted: "There is no trust among the people that the [Tanzanian] Red Cross is impartial. They think they are part of the Tanzanian government."¹³⁶ In Wete and Micheweni, local people were reported to have run away when they saw the TRCS's vehicle, fearing that it contained police or soldiers, and were reluctant to let TRCS staff know about wounded people, fearing arrests, even though there were hundreds suffering from bullet wounds, broken limbs or cuts who were without professional medical treatment.

Round ups and Arbitrary Arrests

Within days, the police cells were overcrowded with hundreds of detainees, most held without charge. In the aftermath of the demonstrations, groups of army, police, and militia launched house-to-house sweeps, rounding up CUF party activists and abusing residents. Many interviewees reported hearing sporadic gunfire through the night of January 27, 2001, and the following two days.¹³⁷

Those arrested included some who had not participated in the demonstrations, such as Ally Hussein, a musician well known for playing at CUF rallies, who was detained by police at his home in Wete. Nevertheless, he was charged in connection with the murder of the police officer at the Fourways roundabout.¹³⁸ The charges were eventually dropped as part of the October 2001 agreement between the government and CUF.

The following day in Utaani, police and FFU officers arrested Wete district's CUF party chairman, Suleiman Seif:

They just broke down the door and came in. They told me to go outside. They told me to raise my arms in the air and go to the CUF secretary's house. I raised my arms and they beat me with clubs all the way, saying, "You have committed murder-today we are going to murder you." They told me to lie down on the ground and roll around. I did. They took our secretary's husband from his house and made him roll around on the ground beside me. Then they took a gallon container of water and poured it on us. Then they told me to sing. One of them was aiming a gun at me. [They] made me run to the House of Representatives while I sang. At the House of Representatives there were about one hundred police and militia members. They came running at me with weapons ready, clubs and rifles. I fell to the ground then and told them "Please, just kill me now, finish this." But their chief said, "Don't kill this one, I want him." Then they made me run as fast as I could to the police station, where I was beaten by two policewomen with clubs. They beat me on the head, saying, "This one hasn't been beaten enough yet."¹³⁹

By the night of January 27, 2001, hundreds were in custody in Wete. In Zanzibar Town, police entered dozens of homes and arrested perceived opposition supporters, often apparently tipped off by pro-CCM neighbors, and charged them with "participating in an illegal demonstration." Some CCM members in Wete did not collude in the police round ups, however, and in some cases protected the wounded. In Chasasa, for example, a local CCM member who was asked by the local administrator (sheha) and police to point out where CUF leaders and wounded were hiding in the neighborhood, refused to do so, feigning ignorance, although he knew some were hiding next door.

Local residents were abused by security forces as they conducted house-to-house searches. One man was beaten and then forced to lie on the ground outside Mlandege police station on Unguja Island from 10:00 a.m. to nearly 4:00 p.m. on January 27, 2001. Another detainee, who was suffering a severe bite inflicted by a police dog, stated:

We were made to lie down in a police truck like bags of rice and the policemen were stepping on us. When we got to Madema, I couldn't see anything, but I was beaten by policemen when I got out of the truck to go into the station. One old policeman took pity on me and told someone to take me to a hospital. That was around 3:00 p.m. and I had been bitten at 9:00 a.m.¹⁴⁰

Political tensions were exacerbated by religious differences. Police and soldiers reportedly used abusive anti-Muslim speech when conducting house searches, and in some police stations, prisoners were beaten for trying to pray. Women who used water allotted to them to conduct ablutions for praying were reportedly beaten for `wasting water' and told that praying was not allowed in prison,¹⁴¹ while a detainee who used an Arabic saying after sneezing in court was fined by the judge and told: "There's no thanking God in here."¹⁴² In Wete, a woman whose husband was sought by police, said an officer beat her elder sister, a woman in her sixties, on the head with a club:

"Mtume! (The Prophet Mohammed)" she said. The police started saying that the Prophet had no office here. "There will be no praying here!" And they kept beating her on the head and shoulders.¹⁴³

In Chake Chake, eight women who had been hiding in a house and were praying when police broke in, said police told them: "You Muslims act like we are barbarians, do you? We just killed someone because he was praying like you are, and if you pray now we will kill you."¹⁴⁴ In another case, police searched and then looted a woman's house:

They asked for the men, but I told them that there are no men living in the house. I was saying a prayer while they were searching, but they yelled at me, "Don't mention Allah. There is no god except for [Tanzanian President] Benjamin Mkapa!"¹⁴⁵

Rape and Sexual Abuse

In the aftermath of the demonstrations, as the police made their rounds from house to house searching for demonstrators and opposition supporters, there were cases of rape and other instances of sexual abuse perpetrated largely by the militia as well as police. After the round-ups, sexual abuse also occurred in the prison holding cells.

In Wete, militia members sexually assaulted both men and women in the course of house-to-house searches. One woman told Human Rights Watch that she was living with her three young children when five men came to her house after nightfall on January 27, 2001, one in an army uniform and the rest in green militia uniforms, but all wearing black stocking masks over their faces. After breaking down her door and searching, they took her gold jewelry and several items of clothing. Then, while the militia searched, the soldier pointed his rifle at her chest and pushed her into her bedroom. Two militiamen then removed her clothes and the soldier pushed her down onto her bed with his rifle, where she was raped in turn by two militia while the others watched and her children cried in the hallway. They threatened her that they would return the next day, and the next.¹⁴⁶

Militia members reportedly raped at least four girls in the Wete neighborhoods of Limbani, Kipangani, and Bopwe. A female high school student was reportedly raped in her home by militia members while police watched. In Chake Chake, four armed and masked police wearing FFU uniforms forcibly entered a woman's house in the morning of January 27, 2001, and demanded to know where her husband was:

One of them began to beat me on the head and neck until I was dizzy and fell down. Then he picked me up twice and dropped me on the ground. He said, "If you want us to leave you alone, give us money"...Then the policeman pulled up my dress, and then he inserted his finger inside me and told me to urinate. My relative told them that I couldn't have sex, and gave them U.S. $50, but they wanted more, so I got them U.S. $120, and then they left. We hid inside for two days and heard a local policeman leading mainlanders to the houses of CUF members and telling them to rob and harass Arabs.¹⁴⁷

Another woman was alone with her daughter when a dozen police kicked in her door and headed straight for her bedroom. While some searched through her things, taking her watch, money, gold and other valuables, others ordered her to lie down. When she refused, they told her, "We've already had your neighbors; we've fucked them. Why are you too good for us?" Then one told her small daughter, "Take off your clothes!" When she refused, they kicked her and beat her with a club. Then they left.¹⁴⁸ Human Rights Watch heard other reports of at least three other rapes in Chake Chake, including those of a mother and daughter.¹⁴⁹

According to police officer from Zanzibar Town, who spoke to Human Rights Watch under conditions of anonymity, police also sexually abused and assaulted detainees in holding cells:

The situation was very bad; there was a lot of confusion. Police were going into cells and treading on people and beating them. They [the female prison guards] were doing things to them that are unacceptable, such as searching women, grabbing their buttocks, genitals, breasts. The cells in Madema are designed to hold thirty people, but there were more than 200 in there.¹⁵⁰

^{In Wete prison, police inserted twigs and sticks into the anuses of male prisoners as they searched them. According to one witness:}

We were stripped in front of all the askaris [police]. We were fully searched, our entire bodies. They also search in your private places. Women were searched in another area. Sometimes an askari would use a stick to do the [anal] searching, then show that stick to others. I know the guards who did this by name.¹⁵¹

House Searches, Looting and Destruction of Property

While carrying out house-to-house searches, police and other forces threatened residents, looted and destroyed property, beat and arrested people found out of doors, and raped a number of women, particularly targeting known opposition supporters, the wealthy, and people of Arab origin. In Chake Chake, forty-three people claimed to have experienced losses in excess of U.S. $28,000 due to police damage to property and looting.¹⁵² In Wete, on January 28, 2001, police and militia looted Wete market, carrying away mangoes, grains, rice, and other foodstuffs.

As hundreds of men fled their homes to avoid arrest, many women who were left home alone faced violence at the hands of security forces and their CCM accomplices. In Wete, for example, one woman was at home with her four children when seven police broke down her door and searched the house, taking clothes and jewelry:

They asked me, "Where is your husband?" I told them I did not know. "Today your husband will die. Today he will not escape. When we see him we will kill him." They slapped me twice in the face. Two of them broke the freezer with their clubs. In the bedroom two police officers shot into the ceiling, thinking my husband was hiding in the eaves. They wanted me to squat and leap up and down. I didn't want to squat and leap. I went into the courtyard but three of them followed me and beat me on the back and shoulders with clubs. "Tell us where your husband is," one of the policemen said, "or we'll take a knife and slice your throat open." Then another policeman said, pointing at one of my children, "Let's kill her so the government can raise her child." In the other room they were cutting the mattresses open. When they left, I saw that they had stolen about TShs. 500,000 [approximately U.S. $555] from me.¹⁵³

Shops were looted, as well. In Wete, police ransacked the shop of Omar Tolli near the site of the police officer's death after the demonstrators had dispersed:

Police and CCM militia broke down the doors and stole a lot of things, including several fifty-kilo sacks of rice, flour, and sugar. They took perfume bottles, Nido milk tins, gallons of cooking oil, and soda crates, which they took to the hotel and drank. Altogether it is more than TShs. 500,000 [approximately U.S. $555]¹⁵⁴

Juma Othman Msomali's store was ransacked by prison officers, who came with a prison truck. They broke furniture and took all the foodstuffs. Police and coastguards stole clothing, shoes, and perfume bottles from another shopkeeper and kicked him when they found him hiding, then dragged him off to the police station.

Three other people in Wete reported thefts of cash from their homes by police, army, and militia totaling over TShs. 3,000,000 [approximately U.S. $3,330].¹⁵⁵ Police, army, militia and coastguards broke into a house in Mtemani, beat the fifty-five-year-old woman living there, broke her television set, stole a dozen pairs of kanga cloths, gold, and more than TShs. 400,000 [U.S. $450] in cash.¹⁵⁶ They then stole her neighbor's video cassette player.¹⁵⁷

In Chake Chake, soldiers engaged in house-to-house searches in the nearby neighborhoods of Mkanjuni and Mkoroshoni. They attempted to break into the front and rear doors of one large house and then shot the lock with a rifle. According to a woman living in the house,

They were looking in the mattress and the cabinets for money, so I gave them money and my gold jewelry [worth $2,500]. One soldier put his gun in my [two-year-old] grandson's mouth, but he thought it was a game and tried to play with it. Then they tried to take away my [six-year-old] granddaughter, but I put my hand on her and told them, "Whatever you have to do to her, do it here in front of me." So they just fondled her and poked her, and then they left.¹⁵⁸

A woman living in Mkanjuni near the police roadblock described her experience:

After the demonstration, police started going house to house, threatening to break down the door if it wasn't opened. They went to one of our neighbors, but when they saw that she was wearing CCM clothing, they just told her to stay inside. Most of the police were from the mainland, but one policeman who sounded like he was from around here told the other police which houses to avoid because they were owned by CCM supporters or police. He took them to the houses owned by CUF supporters, and especially the houses of Arabs around here, because they hate Arabs.¹⁵⁹

Police severely beat and arrested Juma Ngwali, a retired regional commissioner who was already in poor health:

Several police broke into my house at 8:45 a.m. and accused me of videotaping the demonstration. I told them that they already had broken in, they might as well look for a video camera, but they wouldn't find one. The police commanding officer ordered, "Beat him until he gives it to us," but I told him that he would have to beat me until I died, as I don't have any camera. So they dragged me and my son outside, and they beat us. They broke my arm and leg and they stamped on my neck, and they took us to the police station. Then they came back to the house. They stole a cell phone and money and gold worth U.S.$ 700. They broke my television and VCR, and windows and ceiling, with the butts of their rifles.¹⁶⁰

According to the Tanzanian government, it was the local people who were responsible for the looting that followed the demonstrations, taking advantage of the lawlessness, and who then blamed the security forces,¹⁶¹ but this is directly contradicted by many testimonies obtained by Human Rights Watch which place the blame squarely on government forces.

Mistreatment in Police Custody

As stated above, some detainees were made to run the gauntlet of baton-wielding police when taken into police stations, and placed in overcrowded cells. According to one police officer interviewed by Human Rights Watch:

When a car entered the station, police arranged themselves in two lines on either side of the entrance with their truncheons. There was not less than twenty-five or thirty on each side. The people were beaten one at a time all the way down the line until they entered the station. This one was beating and then this one and this one, until the person went inside.¹⁶²

Another police officer gave a similar account: "People were brought in. One was beaten with truncheons and had his leg broken right there at the station; another was beaten and his head split open...people were really being beaten badly."¹⁶³ Detainees at Wete prison reported police shootings, rapes and degrading treatment of prisoners in Wete police station. A detainee who was held at Wete police station overnight on January 27, 2001, said he saw a police officer take a girl of about sixteen years of age up to the roof of the police station, from where he heard screams, leading him to believe she was being raped.¹⁶⁴ Some detainees were even confined in the prison's dog pen, where there was dog excrement all over the floor, and were told by police to "join your fellow dogs."¹⁶⁵

Detainees who had been held at Wete prison jail complained to Human Rights Watch of daily beatings, no food, sporadic water provision and constant abuse.¹⁶⁶ At Kilimani prison on the outskirts of Zanzibar Town, prison guards reportedly beat prisoners, forced them to strip naked and throw their clothes in a pile, then took their money, cell phones, belts, shoes and other valuables, before herding them into a large courtyard, where they were made to lie down and were beaten again. One former detainee described the experience:

After we took off all of our clothes, even our underwear, we had to go outside to a concrete yard. There were about thirty-five of us, but at least a hundred guards started beating us with clubs and yelling insults, saying things like, "You don't want this government!" Then we had to lie down and they kept beating me until I lost consciousness. Guards later brought in all of the clothes and forced us to dress quickly, so some people didn't see their own clothes but had to put on someone else's clothes. Then we were taken to the cells.¹⁶⁷

Another group of eighty naked prisoners were beaten with batons by prison guards and forced to sing songs insulting CUF leaders over a period from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.¹⁶⁸

Prisoners were held in overcrowded conditions in eight small cells measuring about seven by ten feet each, thirty prisoners to a cell. On a typical day, prisoners were given one cup of porridge and allowed to use the toilet at 5:00 a.m.; then fed with beans and cornmeal porridge (sembe), often made with rotten ingredients or infested by bugs, at 2:00 p.m.; then locked in their cells without water or toilet facilities from 4:00 p.m. until the following morning.¹⁶⁹

Kilimani had four cells set aside for female prisoners; two were used for prisoners detained in connection with the demonstrations, and the other two for women held for unconnected crimes. On arrival, the fourteen women held as a result of the demonstrations were strip-searched and forced to bend over to have their private parts examined by a female prison guard. They were not beaten, but they were insulted and they were made to do work such as cutting grass, cleaning toilets or sweeping, but not allowed to wash their clothing.¹⁷⁰

Lack of Due Process

A total of 373 people were arrested in Zanzibar Town; all of them were charged in the Mwanakwerekwe court and then held in Kilimani prison.¹⁷¹ In Pemba, at least 250 people were arrested and charged; all were taken to the Chake Chake courthouse and then held in Wete prison.¹⁷² Most defendants were charged with "participating in an illegal demonstration" and were released from remand within a month, after posting bail (ranging from TShs. 20,000 [U.S.$22] to TShs. 100,000 [U.S. $110]), although in many cases a second person also had to post a bond worth TShs. 100,000 [U.S. $110]. Defendants were required to appear in court nearly every two weeks, but each time the state prosecutor asked for the hearing date to be postponed. Charges relating to the demonstration were finally dropped as part of the October 10, 2001, agreement between CCM and CUF.

The Mwanakwerekwe court in Zanzibar Town operated throughout the weekend of January 27, 2001, to process those arrested. Of the 373 people charged,¹⁷³ 200 were brought from Madema police station remanded and sent to prison. As they were brought to the court, they too were forced to run a police gauntlet and police made some hop like frogs, with their hands behind their heads, while beating them.¹⁷⁴

Once inside court, detainees were charged in groups, but there were no lawyers there to represent them. The main defense lawyer, was not notified before their appearance and was never shown any evidence against any of the defendants.¹⁷⁵ Some defendants were reportedly beaten by police in front of the magistrate, but he did not intervene to stop the assaults.¹⁷⁶

Many of those arrested were charged with "participating in an illegal demonstration." Some women who were arrested in their offices the day before the demonstration were charged with "preparation for an illegal demonstration."¹⁷⁷ Others, charged with vandalizing property, were accused of damaging a TV van, and at least two women accused of beating a local leader while wearing ski masks were charged with "physical assault on a government agent."¹⁷⁸ One man who had been arrested at his home was told by police at Madema police station that he would be charged with "attempting to set Mlandege police post on fire," and police forced him to sign a false confession statement, although when he was brought to court, the charge had been reduced to "disturbing the peace and demonstrating."¹⁷⁹

¹¹⁶ Human Rights Watch interview, Shimoni, Kenya, March 2001.

¹¹⁷ Human Rights Watch interviews, Wete, August 3, 2001, and Shimoni, Kenya, March 2001.

¹¹⁸ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 13, 2001.

¹¹⁹ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 13, 2001.

¹²⁰ Muhtaari wa Ufafanuzi Kuhusu Maandamano Haramu ya CUF Visiwani na Bara Tarehe 27, 2001 Wizara ya Mambo ya Nje na Ushirikiano wa Kimataifa, Dar es Salaam, January 30, 2001.

¹²¹ Human Rights Watch interview, Shimoni, Kenya, March 2001.

¹²² Human Rights Watch interviews, Wete, August 6 and August 14, 2001.

¹²³ Human Rights Watch interview, Wingwi, August 14, 2001.

¹²⁴ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 12, 2001.

¹²⁵ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 3, 2001.

¹²⁶ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 9, 2001.

¹²⁷ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 10, 2001.

¹²⁸ Human Rights Watch interview, Dar-es-Salaam, August 3, 2001.

¹²⁹ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 6, 2001.

¹³⁰ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.

¹³¹ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 1, 2001.

¹³² Human Rights Watch interview, Micheweni, August 10, 2001.

¹³³ Human Rights Watch interview, August 9, 2001.

¹³⁴ The TRCS's National Chair, Abdul Rahman Kinana, is a retired army colonel who served as President Mkapa's campaign manager in the 1995 and 2000 elections (both of which were characterized by state-supported interference and, in 2000 with violence against Zanzibaris). In January 2001, five executive members were CCM members of parliament (MPs): Makongoro Mahanga, the TRCS's regional treasurer for Dar-es-Salaam, MP for Ukonga; Leonard Derefa, a member of the TRCS national executive committee, represented Shinyanga Urban; the TRCS chair for Shinyanga, Bhiku Lukindagila, was MP for Solwa; Lydia Boma, the TRCS chair for Mtwara, as well as Zainab Gama, a member of the TRCS national managing committee, were both awarded `special seats' in parliament through the CCM Women's Wing. Additionally, the former TRCS deputy field operations coordinator, Abdula Lutavi, served as MP for Tandahiba. The TRCS regional field officer for Zanzibar was another prominent CCM member, Omar Makame.

¹³⁵ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.

¹³⁶ Human Rights Watch interview, Dar-es-Salaam, August 4, 2001.

¹³⁷ Human Rights Watch interviews, August 8 - 13, 2001.

¹³⁸ Human Rights Watch interview, Dar-es-Salaam, August 3, 2001.

¹³⁹ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 12, 2001.

¹⁴⁰ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.

¹⁴¹ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 8, 2001.

¹⁴² Human Rights Watch interview, Micheweni, August 8, 2001.

¹⁴³ Human Rights Watch interview, New York, July 27, 2001.

¹⁴⁴ Human Rights Watch interview, Chake Chake, August 6, 2001.

¹⁴⁵ Human Rights Watch interview, Chake Chake, August 19, 2001.

¹⁴⁶ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 10, 2001.

¹⁴⁷ Human Rights Watch interview, Chake Chake, August 11, 2001.

¹⁴⁸ Human Rights Watch interview, Chake Chake, August 7, 2001.

¹⁴⁹ Human Rights Watch interview, August 8, 2001.

¹⁵⁰ Human Rights Watch interview with policeman, Zanzibar Town, August 1, 2001.

¹⁵¹ Human Rights Watch interview, Shimoni, Kenya, March 2001.

¹⁵² Claims collected by CUF and not independently corroborated by Human Rights Watch. "Majina ya wanachama walioathirika mali zao na kuibiwa (kuporwa) na wanaulinzi (polisi/jeshi) la wananchi Tanzania-siku ya terehe, January 27, 2001-Wilaya ya Chake Chake/Pemba," CUF, April 24, 2001.

¹⁵³ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 11, 2001.

¹⁵⁴ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 8, 2001.

¹⁵⁵ Human Rights Watch interviews, Wete, August 9, 10, and Dar es Salaam, August 20, 2001.

¹⁵⁶ Human Rights Watch interviews, Shimoni, Kenya, March 2001 and Wete, August 20, 2001.

¹⁵⁷ Human Rights Watch interviews, Dar-es-Salaam, August 20, 2001.

¹⁵⁸ Human Rights Watch interview, Chake Chake, August 19, 2001.

¹⁵⁹ Human Rights Watch interview, Chake Chake, August 11, 2001.

¹⁶⁰ Human Rights Watch interview with Juma Ngwali, Chake Chake, August 14, 2001.

¹⁶¹ Human Rights Watch interview with Bernard Mchomvu, permanent secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, January 30, 2002.

¹⁶² Human Rights Watch interview with policeman, Zanzibar Town, August 1, 2001.

¹⁶³ Human Rights Watch interview with policeman, Zanzibar Town, August 1, 2001.

¹⁶⁴ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 5, 2001.

¹⁶⁵ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 2, 2001.

¹⁶⁶ Human Rights Watch interview, Wete, August 2, 2001.

¹⁶⁷ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.

¹⁶⁸ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.

¹⁶⁹ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.

¹⁷⁰ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.

¹⁷¹ Human Rights Watch interview with defense lawyer, Zanzibar Town, August 16, 2001.

¹⁷² Human Rights Watch interview with defense lawyer, Wete, August 14, 2001.

¹⁷³ Human Rights Watch interview with defense lawyer, Zanzibar Town, August 16, 2001.

¹⁷⁴ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.

¹⁷⁵ Human Rights Watch interview with defense lawyer, Zanzibar Town, August 16, 2001.

¹⁷⁶ Human Rights Watch interviews, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.

¹⁷⁷ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.

¹⁷⁸ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.

¹⁷⁹ Human Rights Watch interview, Zanzibar Town, August 9, 2001.