Zak Malang
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- Dec 30, 2008
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Wadau: Someni makala hii ya Jenerali ambayo ni masterpiece nyingine kutoka kwake. Hakika, tawala zozote dhaifu huwa zinaingia woga na kuanza vitendo vya kikatiki kwa wananchi wake.
Death of a journalist shows how CCM, running scared, is unleashing terror on the people
By JENERALI ULIMWENGU
The shocking killing of a senior journalist last week has underscored the rising level of violence invested in the political process in Tanzania, with the public up in arms at the readiness of the security forces to beat, teargas and shoot people who do not pose any threat to the public peace.
The journalist was killed during another violent altercation between the police and the main opposition party, Chadema, in the southern region of Iringa.
It would appear that Daudi Mwangosi, the regional representative of Channel TEN, a major Dar es Salaam based television station, was on duty on a day when Chadema had decided to go ahead with a political rally in defiance of orders issued by the police.
According to some accounts, Mwangosi attended a press conference on the morning of his death and asked a question that was apparently not appreciated by the police commander fielding questions.
Later, Mwangosi was filming a chaotic scene of police waving clubs and lobbing teargas into the throng of Chadema supporters.
Though not much detail has emerged this far, there is general agreement among eyewitnesses that at some stage during the commotion, Mwangosi was apprehended by the police who proceeded to rough him up before something tore him up, exposing his internal organs and leaving what had been Mwangosi just minutes earlier a heap of carrion flesh.
Pictures of the mangled remains posted on social media were hard to look at, especially the one with that crimson lump in the back of a pickup truck.
This singularly violent and revolting killing has, understandably, fired up emotions. There have been demands for heads to roll. A number of incidents have been cited, including killings in Arusha, Morogoro and Singida.
The media fraternity is up in arms. They reject any suggestion that this could have been an accident occasioned by an overzealous police officer mishandling a teargas canister firing device and letting it explode into Mwangosi at too close range.
They point to the earlier altercation during the press conference and the fact that Mwangosi was in police hands when the horrifying incident happened.
Said the executive secretary of the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT), Kajubi Mukajanga: "They know what they are doing is wrong; it's not because they are ignorant. They just want to do it because somehow it gives them power over other people. With low pay and poor working conditions, this power is some form of compensation."
Others see a political hatchet job, with the police pulling the ruling party's chestnuts out of the fire in an attempt to stop the rapid political ascent of Chadema, which has CCM seriously worried as it stares defeat in the face in 2015.
"Can you not see that these people are running scared at the very real prospect of Chadema winning in the coming general election, and since they have run out of arguments, the only weapon they have is to sow terror?" said another journalist.
Whatever the cause, there is agreement that there is little political control over a police force that is supposed to protect the people and not to kill them.
A retired judge, Thomas Mihayo, who serves on a committee of the MCT, asked, "Why do people have to ask for police permission before they can hold a political rally? Who gives the police such powers, when the constitution clearly states the right to assemble?"
The issue of impunity has been at the centre of the debate in Dar es Salaam and other Tanzanian towns.
A participant in a local television talk show recently observed that when police killed scores of demonstrating civilians in Unguja and Pemba, not a single officer was held responsible, even though that was the first time Tanzania had generated refugees as survivors fled to Mombasa.
"The insensitivity of the government," he added, "was such that former president Benjamin Mkapa, [who in an interview with Tim Sebastian in Davos had insisted, ‘Only seventeen people died'] did not see the need to put off a ceremony to decorate police officers for meritorious service, giving the impression that they were being rewarded for the killings in Unguja and Pemba."
The reaction in the region has been one of startled disbelief. "How can this happen in Tanzania? For heavens' sake, you are not just another country? When did you lose it? What are the rest of us going to do if even you do that to your unarmed people?"
The government has already formed a commission of inquiry, though it is doubtful people will be placated, given the fact that previous inquiries have little to show in terms of results.
Media people, lawyers, human rights activists, clergymen and others, have called for an independent commission that will not be patronised by the government, which is itself in the dock over this issue.
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A senior Chadema official and parliamentarian, John Mnyika, told a press conference that there was no need for a commission of inquiry when the primary suspects are known.
"Their faces can be seen clearly in the photographs showing them roughing him up. These men should be the first to be arrested before we even talk of an inquiry."
Calls have been made for the resignation of Saidi Mwema, the Inspector General of Police, who has been publicly described by one media expert as a most surprising man, who "came to his office amid general jubilation, for we saw in him an officer and a gentleman, a cultured and educated officer. It is hard to believe that this trigger-happy police force killing us is serving under Mwema."
The unavoidable parallel is being drawn between police behaviour now and how they behaved under Julius Nyerere.
Said a veteran Dar es Salaam lawyer, "Under Mwalimu, there were extrajudicial killings, no doubt. But they were dealt with firmly either through prosecution and imprisonment, sackings or resignations."
All this is happening at a time when the country is waiting to hear what exactly happened to Dr Stephen Ulimboka, leader of striking doctors, who claims he was abducted at gun point by security agents who beat him up, tortured him and left him for dead in a bush outside Dar es Salaam.
He has claimed that his abductors had asked him over and over whether he was leading the strike at Chadema's behest.
Jenerali Ulimwengu, chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper, is a political comentator and civil society activist based in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: ulimwengu@jenerali.com
Source: The East African
