OWN CORRESPONDENT, Zanzibar | Monday
TANZANIAN police have battled opposition supporters on the semi-autonomous island of Pemba in Zanzibar for a second day, arresting hundreds of people in bloody clashes that have left 32 people dead.
At least six of the dead were police officers, according to a toll compiled by reporters based on witness accounts and hospital sources.
On Sunday, police and army troops stormed into homes in Pemba in neighborhoods that traditionally favour the opposition, witnesses said. Opposition supporters who resisted were beaten.
By late Sunday, violence had intensified on the small Indian Ocean isle, where gunfire was heard.
Tanzania sent in some 200 reinforcements, arresting 389 people suspected of taking part in banned opposition protests on Saturday in the troubled archipelago, normally a haven for tourists, and on mainland Tanzania.
The islands have been a hotbed of tension since October and November polls which the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) says were rigged in favor of the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM or Revolutionary Party).
The opposition is demanding a rerun of the vote, which was marred by violence and massive irregularities, according to international observers.
On Saturday, police fought running battles against opposition supporters, who were armed with machetes and petrol bombs on the islands of Pemba and Unguja, known also as Zanzibar Island.
The bloodshed began the day before when police shot dead two unarmed civilians in Zanzibar Town, relatives and hospital sources said.
Doctors at Wete hospital on Pemba said 24 people had died during or after Saturday’s protests. Some of those wounded died from lack of medical care.
Security forces had prevented hospital staff from tending to the injured, they said.
Among the dead in Pemba were four police, one of whom had been decapitated with a machete by irate opposition supporters.
On Zanzibar Island, six civilians and two police officers were killed on Saturday, according to witnesses, hospital sources and journalists.
While polling was relatively trouble-free on the mainland, voting on Zanzibar and Pemba was described by the CUF and international election monitors as undemocratic. Observers from the Commonwealth called the elections “a shambles.” – AFP