NAIROBI: A Tanzanian government report into election violence that killed hundreds is “an attempt to whitewash the regime’s crimes,” the main opposition party told AFP on Thursday.
A commission of enquiry reported on Thursday that 518 people were killed in protests and violence around the election in October last year, without saying who was responsible.
The opposition says security forces killed thousands.
“It’s all a cover-up actually. Like many other statements that the president has made, the report is all designed to whitewash the regime’s crimes,” John Kitoka, head of foreign affairs for the Chadema opposition party, told AFP by phone.
“There’s nothing new and we expected to be like that,” he added.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner of the October 29 poll with 98 percent of the vote after key opposition figures were barred from running.
“Tanzanians are very disappointed. They don’t have any trust in these enquiries because the president herself is an accused in the process. Why would anyone trust her?” said Kitoka.
Mohamed Chande Othman, the chair of the commission, “has completely destroyed whatever reputation he had, he went about lying to Tanzanians saying (protesters) were paid by foreign forces, which is a big lie,” said Kitoka.
Tanzania poll violence report is ‘whitewash’: opposition
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Tanzania poll violence report is ‘whitewash’: opposition
- The opposition says security forces killed thousands
- “Like many other statements that the president has made, the report is all designed to whitewash the regime’s crimes,” Kitoka said
