Zanzibari refugees on hunger strike

Tanzanian refugees from Unguja and Pemba in the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar have gone on a hunger strike in the coastal Kenyan town of Shimoni to protest the Kenyan government's plans to transfer their leaders to a refugee camp in the country's North Eastern Province, UNHCR reported on Tuesday. "This follows the Kenyan Government's announcement that it was willing to allocate a temporary site nearby for the 2,254 refugees on condition that between 30 and 40 leaders of the Civic United Front (CUF) are separated and relocated to Dadaab refugee camp," UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland. Among the leaders are 16 legislators who arrived at Shimoni, in Kwale District, southeastern Kenya, six weeks ago, following a demonstration that sparked clashes on the islands on 27 January. At least 30 people were killed in the fighting which broke out when the security forces used strong-arm tactics to put down CUF protests CUF on Unguja and Pemba against what they termed as fraudulent elections last October. The human rights NGO Amnesty International on Saturday called on the Tanzanian government to establish an independent and impartial inquiry into what it called "the recent killings, systematic torture and mass arbitrary arrests of opposition party supporters in Zanzibar during and after the demonstrations of 27 January 2001." Preliminary findings by an Amnesty mission confirmed reports of torture, including rape and beatings, as well as indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force against civilians, including women and children, it said. "Women were stripped naked at gunpoint, at times in front of their families or male police officers," according to its report. The Amnesty delegation received eyewitness testimonies indicating that most of the killings by security forces may have been unlawful. "There was evidence that Tanzanian security forces violated the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, which states that the use of lethal force must be still be consistent with the principles of necessity and proportionality," Amnesty stated. Tanzania has said that the situation on the islands is back to normal, and urged refugees to go home, while the Zanzibar government has assured potential returnees that they would not face prosecution. The Zanzibari refugees in Shimoni told UNHCR last week that they were willing to be relocated to Dadaab "as a community" but that separation from their leaders was "unacceptable", UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said on Tuesday. Following reports of constant attempts by CUF activists in Pemba to contact some of their leaders among the refugees, the Kenyan Government had expressed concern over the security threat posed by the refugee leaders' presence in Shimoni, and said that the safety of the refugee leadership could not be guaranteed if they remained there, he added. The Kenyan government on Tuesday denied refugees' claims that it was party to a plot to have them eliminated while on their way to Dadaab, the Kenyan 'Daily Nation' newspaper reported. Undersecretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Heritage Nimrod Waweru said that Kenya was not party to the dispute in Zanzibar and could not put itself at the centre of the political dispute, according to the report. Waweru said the decision to relocate the refugees to Dadaab was taken on security grounds, that the main body of the refugees would be transferred after their leaders and that the refugees had no right to decide where the Kenyan government should settle them. He described the hunger strike by refugees in Shimoni as "intimidation" and said the decision to relocate the leaders was final, the 'Nation' reported. Kombo Hamisi Kombo, Member of Parliament for Wingwi-Pemba constituency in Zanzibar, said the hunger strike had entered its second day on Tuesday, and would continue until the Kenyan government rescinded its decision to relocate the leaders to Dadaab, it added. Refugee leaders cited by the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on Wednesday said the Nairobi government's decision was "a violation of human rights", and that it would be unfair to move them to semi-arid northern Kenyan when they were used to a humid climate such as prevailed in Zanzibar and Shimoni. The refugees have nominated 12 representatives to take part in a UNHCR-led mission to Zanzibar, scheduled to take place this week, to assess the potential for their return but the Tanzanian authorities had yet to deliver guarantees on their security, Kris Janowski told journalists on Tuesday. The composition of the refugees in Shimoni - with a majority of young, single men, very few families and only 204 women and children - and their strong sense of cohesion attested to the fact that most of the refugees were political activists, AP on Tuesday quoted the refugee agency as saying. "While UNHCR protection officers have determined that the group constitutes genuine refugees, CUF has capitalised on their plight by exposing their political agenda to the international community," the report added. In another development, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that Britain should not expel a CUF political activist, originally from Pemba, who had been refused asylum. The court found unanimously that the deportation to Tanzania of Said Mohammed Hilal would expose him t serious risk of torture or inhuman and degrading treatment, in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, AFP reported. The court was not convinced by Britain's argument that Hilal could live in mainland Tanzania where the human rights was more secure than in Zanzibar, noting that there was the possibility of extradition between Tanzania and the semiautonomous jurisdiction, the report said. Hilal fled to Britain in 1995, after alleged persecution in Zanzibar in 1994 as result of his political activities, but had his request for asylum rejected by the British authorities, AFP reported. The case was brought to the European Court in January 1999, it said. In the meantime, according to UNHCR, the situation at the fisheries compound in Shimoni where the recent Zanzibari refugees have been confined since their arrival on 28 January has become "desperate" as more people arrive. "UNHCR is building minimal sanitary facilities, but the situation in the compound remains critical and poses a health hazard," said its spokesman, Kris Janowski. "The majority of the refugees are sleeping in the open because of the limited space, which makes it impossible to set up tents for all refugees," he added. According to the agency, refugee leaders have expressed the community's willingness to return to Pemba and Zanzibar, on condition that they get an amnesty for their participation in the 27 January demonstration. The refugees have also drawn up a list of concerns related to the insecurity on the islands, which they would like to see addressed before they would consider returning. Meanwhile, concerns about October's parliamentary and presidential elections in Zanzibar - and the wider political and constitutional climate in Tanzania - are unlikely to be dispelled in the near future. After the clashes in January, for instance, international observers told IRIN that the events on Zanzibar and Pemba were the "ultimate sign of the repressive system that exists in Tanzania". If the rule of law, the protection of human rights and justice for victims and survivors of the recent spate of violence are to be ensured, the Tanzanian government must establish and explain what happened, as well as bring to justice any public official responsible for human rights abuses and unlawful action, Amnesty International stated on Saturday, 3 March. In addition, it said: "The international community must bring pressure to bear on the government of Tanzania to respect fundamental human rights guaranteed by international rights law to which it is signatory."