I have no reason to resign - Mapuri
The Minister for Home Affairs, Omari Mapuri, has said that he is not ashamed of his statement, defending the brutal actions by prison personnel against occupants of houses, and against journalists who were covering the event over the weekend.
The houses were formerly owned by Air Tanzania Corporation.
In an interview with The Express on
Tuesday, 13th September, the Minister said that the matter is too minor to make him resign.
“I am not ashamed of the statement I gave and I am not arrogant about this,” he said.
“I have instructed my subordinates to
investigate the incident, to find out if excessive force was being applied in the eviction exercise, and whether there was any justification for using a lot of force,” the Minister said.
The Minister’s remarks followed a statement issued by the Media Owners’ Association of Tanzania (MOAT) which called for the resignation of Mapuri and the Commissioner for Prisons, Nicas Banzi.
The forceful eviction of the people, who had been occupying the houses allegedly sold to the Prison Department, near Ukonga Remand Prison, left two journalists severely injured, it is alleged.
The MOAT statement affirms that the prison warders and prisoners, on the instructions of their supervisors, surrounded, clubbed, kicked and thumped the journalists in an attempt to confiscate their cameras.
In a press conference on Monday, Mapuri
was quoted saying that reasonable force was used to evict the occupants, and he had warned journalists from interfering with military operations.
In the course of this incident, a photographer working with Mwananchi Communications Limited, Mpoki Bukuku, was injured, along with Legal and Human Rights Centre Information Officer, Christopher Kidanka.
“The beatings and harassment of journalists who were performing their duties was, in MOAT’s view, a serious violation of Media freedom by an arm of the government," the statement reads in part.
From The Express