PREVIEW
A presidential commission into the post-election bloodbath exonerates state security forces, blames unnamed opposition activists for 518 deaths and keeps the details secret
After 153 days, 63,000 testimonies and two deadline extensions, Tanzania's Commission of Inquiry into post-election violence presented its findings to President Samia Suluhu Hassan on 23 April – but only the president will read them in full.
It concluded that state security officers weren’t responsible for the deaths of more than 500 people after last October’s elections but pinned the blame on the protestors and unnamed opposition activists.
At least 518 people were killed in the post-election violence said commission chair Mohamed Chande Othman. This is far lower than the 2,000 estimated by the opposition Chadema party, though Chande Othman said the death toll could be an under count because of difficulties identifying victims (AC Vol 66 No 22, Cloud of blood and doubt hangs over Hassan’s victory).
The commission was appointed by the president and was widely expected to be a whitewash. Chande Othman did not pass judgment on the actions of the police and state security, instead recommending that a commission of criminal investigation be set up to look at specific incidents.
But he insisted that unnamed oppositionists bore the blame for the violence, stating that there was ‘indisputable evidence’ that uprisings against the government had been planned and funded by ‘trained people’.
‘Organisers used various techniques, including using people without deep understanding and desperate youth, while encouraging simultaneous acts of violence across different locations,’ he said.
The text of the report and any recommendations are under wraps. Chande Othman said that the report was the ‘property of the president’ and it was not publicly available. The commission had initially been set a February deadline to present its findings (Dispatches 13/4/26, Chakwera makes belated trip to mediate in election crisis).
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