Arusha. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is not investigating the recent grenade attack on an opposition party rally at Soweto grounds in Arusha, the US embassy in Dar es Salaam has said.
The Public Affairs Officer, Ms Dana Banks, denied police reports that FBI investigators were involved in probing the June 15 attack in which four people were killed and scores others injured. The FBI is not involved in the investigation into the attack at the Chadema political rally, Ms Banks said in an email response to an inquiry by The Citizen on Saturday.
Questions regarding this investigation should be directed to the Tanzania Police Force. The embassys position raises questions about police efforts to unravel the truth and arrest suspects in the two bomb attacks in Arusha. The revelation also leaves the police in an awkward position because they told reporters in Arusha last week that the FBI team was on the ground helping with the investigations.
Asked yesterday about the puzzling turn of events, Regional Police Commander Liberatus Sabas appeared to recant his remarks and said the FBI were only asked to investigate a similar grenade attack at a Catholic Church where three people were killed and over 50 others seriously injured.
We have not called the FBI to assist us and no one has been here to probe the incident, he told The Citizen on Saturday. He also discounted reports that investigators from Kenya had been in Arusha too after the rally attack.
The US embassy official did not allude to any other FBI investigation in Arusha and top Chadema officials have expressed doubts about foreign investigators. Their officials have no such information, they said, and none has been interviewed by the FBI.
On Wednesday last week, Mr Sabas said: Police are continuing with the Soweto grenade attack investigations but we have invited the FBI and Kenyan police to also work closely with us as we try to piece information together.
His statement came at a press conference in his office and was widely quoted in the local press, prompting Chadema Secretary General Wilbrod Slaa to slam the police.
There is nothing new as it is not the first time that FBI has been mentioned in internal investigations, said Dr Slaa. He added that the opposition party stood by its position that the police were suspects and the party still hoped an independent judicial inquest would be formed to investigate the Arusha bomb blast.
Four people were killed and scores others injured when a grenade was hurled at a Chadema by-election campaign meeting at Soweto suburb a day before civic polls for councillors in four Arusha wards.
Investigations have been going on since and several people have been questioned by police. The regional police boss declared at the time that detectives from the FBI and Kenya were called to boost investigations after the May 5 attack at Olasiti Catholic Church.
Many were injured, some critically, and had to be airlifted to hospitals in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi after the latter incident, which occurred as the rally was coming to an end. The findings of the FBI and Kenya investigators are yet to be out and when completed the public would be informed, the RPC insisted.
He had no details of the bombs used in the attacks that have raised growing security concerns in Arusha, which attracts thousands of tourists. He added: The nature of the bombs is being investigated by experts from the army. We also have experts in the police force. The two sides are still at work.
Mr Sabas confirmed that several people arrested in connection with the Chadema rally attack had been released after recording statements. He could not say how many were still in police custody.
Police sources say the main suspect in the church attack is still at large while an accomplice--a motorcycle operator--is awaiting trial for murder.
The FBI first intervened in Zanzibar, leading to the arrest of a suspect who was linked to the killing of Catholic Priest Evarist Mushi in February. The man faces charges in court. Police have offered Sh50 million and Sh100m rewards for information leading to the arrest of those behind the church bombing and the deadly attack on the Chadema rally respectively.
Source:
The Citizen on Saturday
