Chadema shuns planned peace talks

From MARC NKWAME in Arusha, 7th January 2011
DAIKY NEWS

THE Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) has dismissed pleas from the Home Affairs Minister, Mr Shamsi Vuai-Nahodha, who wants peace negotiations between the government and the opposition party.

''We are not ready to negotiate with leaders who breached their own permit for peaceful demonstration and went ahead to deploy police officers to kill innocent people,'' stated Dr Wilbroad Slaa in Arusha on Friday.

Dr Slaa said this shortly after visiting his wife, Josephine, at Mount Meru Hospital where she was admitted following serious injuries suffered last Wednesday when police officers used force to disperse Chadema demonstrators.

The Chadema Secretary General, who also ran for the presidency in last October elections, insisted that his party had official rights sealed with a written permit from the Registrar of Political Parties, Mr John Tendwa, to conduct the open air rally on January 5.

''We have been speaking with Mr Tendwa all day over the phone. On January 4, as I was driving from Dar es Salaam to Arusha the registrar sent the written permit both to my office in Dar es Salaam and through my email, which I accessed via a laptop,'' he said.

The email indicated that Chadema was permitted to hold a rally in Arusha. Dr Slaa said he was not only surprised but also shocked when police vehicles turned up at the rally at Unga Limited and started throwing tear-gas canisters.

The attack caused a stampede with people fleeing in disarray. Some got injured in the process. "If they were ready to break our first agreement to the extent of having people die, how can we be so sure that they will adhere to any other agreement?" asked Dr Slaa.

Party founder Mr Edwin Mtei said the ongoing animosity proves that Chadema was on the right course towards attaining real democracy in Tanzania and that those currently in power should not regard their position as their birth right.

On Thursday Mr Shamsi Vuai Nahodha told a news conference in Dar es Salaam that his office was ready to sit down for talks with Chadema in effort to solve the recurring political conflicts.

The greatest problem stems from Arusha's mayoral elections in which Mr Gaudence Lyimo, a CCM councillor was voted into office by his party representatives in the absence of Chadema councillors.

Four people were killed in the January 5 fracas and over 30 others, including Dr Slaa's wife, seriously wounded in three chaotic episodes.

The Regional Medical Officer, Dr Salash Toure, said here that the Mount Meru Hospital received four bodies and 26 injured victims from the January 5 chaos. Most of the injured suffered bullet wounds. Three of them died at the hospital while undergoing treatment.

Dr Toure named the deceased as Ismail Omar, Dennis Michael, George Waitara and an unknown person who was brought to the hospital gasping for air. He died before he could utter a word.

The RMO added that so far the hospital is treating 19 victims of the political chaos including Mrs Josephine Slaa, the wife of the Secretary General of CHADEMA and the party's 2010 presidential candidate, Dr Wilbroad Slaa.

Lakini Tendwa inaonekana alitoa kibali na baadae aliwataka wasiandamane. Waliandikiana kwenye simu na Dr. Slaa. Unaweza kuona hilo suala kwenye Nipashe... soma habari ya Mwema atetea mauaji .......... "Kila mtu atimize wajibu wake kwa kutii sheria na amri za mamlaka husika, tusijidanganye kuwa kwa kutumia nguvu tutatatua tatizo letu, ilikuwa ni faraja kwao kwa kuruhusiwa kufanya mkutano wangeweza kusema yale yote ambayo wanayo na wahusika wangesikia, lakini yaliyotokea ndio hayo," alisema Tendwa.

Je, nani anasema ukweli kati yao? Infact, nadhani inabidi iundwe tume huru ambayo itatueleza ukweli hasa ukizingatia kuwa kila mtu hataki kubaba lawama.

Hao chadema hawataki amani, kifutwe tu hicho chama.

Chama cha siasa kinapata umaarufu zaidi kupitia maandamano na machafuko, mara zote wananchi ndio wanaotolewa kafala. Zanzibar na Kenya ndio mifano mizuri zaidi ijapokuwa kila chama kinataka kijifunze kwa matukio yake mwenyewe.

Arusha ilionekana kabisa nini kitatokea na hakuna aliyekuwa tayari kuepuka kisitokee, Polisi/Serikali, Chadema na CCM wote wanayo kesi ya kujibu kwa kushindwa kuchukua hatua ya kuuzuia maafa. Askari awataki kuonekana wanyonge, Chadema wanaona wana haki zaidi na CCM wanacheza mchezo kwa remote.

Kinachosikitisha ni maisha ya raia ndio yanayopotea ili kunufaisha wanasiasa kwa so called miafaka. Polisi wamefanya makusudi kama advertize ili kuzima moto wanaotaka kuja nao wanasiasa, lakini at expense kwa maisha ya watanzania.

Busara zaidi inahitajika ijapokuwa swala hili jazba ndio imekuwa ikitawala. Ushindi unaopoteza maisha ya watu haukubaliki manake hata Kenya haikufanya kazi watu wamekufa na bifu linaendelea. Nyerere bado ni mfano bora kabisa katika ukombozi bila kumwaga damu pia Mahtma Ghandhi aliweza kutoa mkoloni bila vita. Mbunge wa Arusha yuko ngangali sana anayo nafasi ya kujifunza kutoka kwa wapiganaji kama Dr. Slaa ambao wameng'aa bila ya vita.

Vyovyote vile walio madarakani hawawezi kukubali kutoka kirahisi lazima watapambana at any cost.