Military

DATE=10/13/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-267900

TITLE=ZANZIBAR ELECTION (L-ONLY)

BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT:

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Human-rights groups say police in Zanzibar are torturing opposition supporters ahead of the presidential election later this month. But authorities on the Indian Ocean island say there has been no intimidation, and everyone is campaigning freely. Scott Stearns reports from our East Africa bureau.

TEXT: Amnesty International says authorities in Zanzibar have consistently worked to stifle political opposition on the island.

The ruling party is trying to hold on to power against a strong challenge from the opposition Civic United Front. Amnesty's Hillary Fisher says the opposition party has not had the same freedom to get its message out to voters.

/// 1st FISHER ACT ///

There are frequent reports of opposition party

members being harassed, and we have also got

concerns with regards to opposition party

members who are in prison.

/// END ACT ///

Ms. Fisher says Amnesty is particularly concerned about reports that on September 12th, several Civic United Front supporters were beaten in Zanizibar's central prison.

Rafii Haji Makame is the deputy director of news for the government of Zanzibar. He says there is no torture.

/// 1st MAKAME ACT IN KISWAHILI--ESTABLISH & FADE ///

Mr. Makame says he has not received any reports about torture in Zanzibari prisions. "How can Amnesty International make such a claim," he says, "when they have not come here or asked to see these prisoners to hear their complaints?"

Ms. Fisher says it is part of a wider pattern of abuse and intimidation in Zanzibar -- electoral violence that she says is not restricted to the ruling party alone.

/// 2nd FISHER ACT ///

I think that all the observers who are watching

the upcoming elections at the moment are

concerned about the increase in violence. There

are, I have to say, also reports of violence by

members of the C-U-F on activists from the

ruling party. The concern is: What is the role

of the authorities in this, how independent the

police will remain.

/// END ACT ///

Zanzibari police broke up an opposition rally Wednesday, firing into the crowd and wounding six people. Civic United Front leaders say they were attacked by stone-throwing members of the ruling party.

Mr. Makame says police were keeping the peace.

/// 2nd MAKAME ACT IN KISWAHILI--ESTABLISH & FADE ///

Mr. Makame says it is true that six people were injured Wednesday, but he says the trouble started after opposition supporters surrounded policemen securing the rally. Then the crowd attacked them. He says police only fired shots "to free their comrades threatened by the opposition crowd."

/// OPT ///

The October 29th elections are for both the president of Zanzibar and the president of the larger United Republic of Tanzania, which joins the islands of Zanibar and Pemba with mainland Tanganyika. Amnesty's Ms. Fisher says political intimidation in Zanzibar is far greater than that on the mainland, where the ruling party is expected to win big.

/// 3rd FISHER ACT ///

Our concern is the violence that is happening around it and about the threat to individuals on Zanzibar which isn't the same, or doesn't appear to be to anywhere near the same extent on the mainland. And yet the people on mainland Tanzania don't seem to be addressing the situation in Zanzibar.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Makame says people in Zanzibar have the same political rights as people on the mainland. He says the island's impartial security forces are ensuring that no party has an unfair advantage.

/// 3rd MAKAME ACT IN KISWAHILI--ESTABLISH & FADE ///

Mr. Makame says campaigning is going on smoothly across Zanzibar, just as it is on the mainland. He says all the parties that are registered for the island's elections are conducting their programs freely, in contests for both local and national office.

/// END OPT ///

The Civic United Front claims the ruling party stole the last presidential election on Zanzibar in 1995. Party officials are threatening civil war if this month's elections are rigged. (Signed)

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