Amnesty International Report 1998 - Tanzania

(This report covers the period January-December 1997)

Thousands of refugees from Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) were forcibly returned, although Tanzania continued to host over 200,000 refugees from Burundi. Journalists were harassed; one was briefly held as a prisoner of conscience. Fourteen possible prisoners of conscience were charged with treason on the island of Zanzibar.

Relations with Burundi remained tense. Burundi accused the Tanzanian authorities of allowing Burundi refugees from the Hutu ethnic group to mount attacks on Burundi, and Tanzania accused the Burundi authorities of carrying out armed attacks along the border. In the first four months of the year thousands of refugees fled from fighting in Zaire between the government of Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko and the Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du Congo-Zaïre (afdl), Alliance of Democratic forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire, led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila

In August, three months after the afdl captured Kinshasa, Tanzania concluded an agreement for the return of refugees with the new government of the renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo

The islands of Pemba and Zanzibar remained politically tense. The opposition Civic United Front (cuf) maintained that the 1995 elections to the islands' government, won by the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi, led on the islands by Salmin Amour, had been rigged. cuf members elected to the Zanzibar House of Representatives refused to take their seats.

The government continued to have an uneasy relationship with independent media, especially on the island of Zanzibar. In March the Zanzibar authorities threatened to order the arrest of practising journalists who were not in possession of a licence required under largely unenforced legislation dating from 1988. In July the work ban imposed in January 1996 on a Zanzibar journalist working for the independent newspaper Majira (see Amnesty International Report 1997) was lifted. However, the newspaper itself, published on the mainland, remained banned from circulation on the island

In January, 126 Burundi refugees were forcibly expelled by the Tanzanian army from Kitale camp to Burundi, where 122 were extrajudicially executed by Burundi soldiers in Kobero, on the border. In a separate incident 48 other refugees were similarly expelled and then arrested by the Burundi authorities. The Tanzanian authorities had accused the refugees of being involved in factional fighting within the refugee camp. Although the authorities promised there would be no further expulsions of Burundi refugees, in October over 2,000 Burundi nationals accused of entering the country illegally were expelled. The border with Burundi remained officially closed throughout the year, in contravention of Tanzania's obligations under international and regional treaties. However, thousands of refugees were allowed to flee into Tanzania, so long as they remained in areas officially designated for refugees

The situation of Rwandese nationals was also insecure. Thousands of them, including refugees, were expelled. Over the first four months of the year over 700 Rwandese officially described as having entered the country illegally were deported. In October and November, over 2,000 Rwandese nationals, some of whom had been in Tanzania since 1951, were rounded up by the Tanzanian army and expelled. Some were reported to have been beaten and raped by Tanzanian soldiers.

Journalists suffered harassment. In February, for example, Adam Mwaibabile, a freelance journalist, was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for possession of a "secret government document" – a letter from a public official directing that he be refused a business licence because of his "hostile" writing. After three weeks in detention he was freed pending appeal. He was a prisoner of conscience. The High Court quashed the conviction in April.

In December, 14 possible prisoners of conscience on Zanzibar were charged with treason and refused bail. The men, supporters of the cuf, were arrested and initially charged with sedition in November and December, during the week the cuf won a by-election to the Zanzibar House of Representatives. They included two opposition members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives and cuf Deputy Secretary General Nassor Seif Amour.

Amnesty International criticized Tanzania for betraying its international obligations not to forcibly return refugees who were at risk of human rights violations in their own countries. In January, after the expulsion and subsequent killing of Burundi refugees, an Amnesty International delegation led by a former Canadian minister of external affairs visited Tanzania and met President Benjamin Mkapa and other government officials. The President stated that there would be no forced repatriation of Burundi refugees.

In January an Amnesty International report on refugees in the Great Lakes region expressed concern about the continuing risk of refoulement facing refugees from Rwanda, Zaire and Burundi in Tanzania. In June Amnesty International published a report on refugees in Africa which included criticism of the Tanzanian authorities for forcibly returning refugees to Rwanda. The report also criticized other governments for failing to support and adequately assist Tanzania's efforts to host hundreds of thousands of refugees. In December Amnesty International wrote to the President expressing renewed concern at the forcible expulsion of refugees

In April Amnesty International's continuing concerns about the death penalty in Tanzania were described in a report about the death penalty in Africa. In response to a letter received in August from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amnesty International was investigating further the alleged killing in August 1996 of 50 gold-miners in Bulyanhulu, Shinyanga region (see Amnesty International Report 1997).