Around 700 people have been killed in three days of election protests in Tanzania, the main opposition party said Friday, with protesters still on the streets in the midst of an internet blackout.
The United Nations on Friday urged Tanzania's security forces to refrain from using unnecessary force against demonstrators and demanded investigations into election-related violence, after polls descended into deadly chaos.
The main opposition Chadema party told French news agency AFP on Friday that "around 700" people had been killed in three days of election protests.
"As we speak the figure for deaths in Dar (es Salaam) is around 350 and for Mwanza it is 200-plus. Added to figures from other places around the country, the overall figure is around 700," Chadema spokesman John Kitoka told AFP.
"The death toll could be much higher," he warned, saying killings could be happening during the nighttime curfew.
However, Tanzania's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo said in an interview with the Al-Jazeera news channel on Friday, that "no excessive force" has been used against protesters, adding that the government had "no figures" on the number of dead.
Kombo denied reports from the opposition that around 700 people have been killed since elections on Wednesday.
"I've not seen these 700 anywhere... There's no number until now of any protesters killed," he said.
With foreign journalists largely banned from covering the election and a communications blackout entering its third day, information from the ground has been scarce.
Internet blackout and curfew
The United Nations said "credible reports" indicated 10 dead, in the first information released by an international body, while Amnesty International said it had information of at least 100 killed.
The UN human rights office also said it had received credible reports of deaths in the economic capital Dar es Salaam, in Shinyanga in the northwest, and Morogoro in the east, with security forces firing live ammunition and tear gas to disperse protesters.
"We are alarmed by the deaths and injuries that have occurred in the ongoing election-related protests in Tanzania," office spokesman Seif Magango told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Nairobi.
Curfew declared in Tanzania's main city after election-day protests
"We call on the security forces to refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force, including lethal weapons, against protesters, and to make every effort to deescalate tensions. Protesters should demonstrate peacefully."
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, whose government is accused of a campaign of repression, had sought to cement her position and silence critics in her party in the virtually uncontested polls, with the main challengers either jailed or barred from standing.
Wednesday's election descended into chaos as huge crowds took to the streets of Dar es Salaam and other cities, attacking police and polling stations, leading to an internet shutdown and curfew.
The only official statement came from army chief Jacob Mkunda late Thursday who called the protesters "criminals".
Undermine public trust
In Zanzibar, a tourist hotspot with its own semi-autonomous government, a spokesman for Hassan's Revolution Party (Chama Cha Mapinduzi: CCM) said the internet would return when the situation calmed.
"The government knows why they have shut the internet. There are people who have tried creating tension in Dar es Salaam and they have destroyed a lot of things," spokesman Hamis Mbeto told reporters.
The CCM had already been declared winner of the local vote on Thursday.
Tanzania heads to polls with opposition barred and democracy under strain
But the opposition party, ACT-Wazalendo, rejected the result, saying: "They have robbed the people of Zanzibar of their voice... The only solution to deliver justice is through a fresh election."
A senior party official told AFP that ballot boxes had been stuffed, people allowed to vote multiple times without ID and their election observers kicked out of counting rooms.
ACT-Wazalendo was allowed to contest the local election in Zanzibar, but its candidate was barred from competing against Hassan on the mainland.
The UN spokesman said Tanzanian authorities should promptly reinstate internet access "and facilitate citizens' full enjoyment of their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly".
"Curtailment of communication will only further undermine public trust in the electoral process," Magango added.
'Wave of terror'
The spokesman said the electoral campaigns had been "marred" by allegations of arbitrary arrests and detentions of opposition figures, including the opposition Chadema party leader Tundu Lissu, and reported enforced disappearances of people expressing dissenting views.
"All those in arbitrary detention must be immediately and unconditionally released and those held legally must be accorded full due process and fair trial rights," said Magango.
Tanzania's opposition rallies against 'cosmetic' electoral reforms
"We urge the authorities to ensure prompt, impartial and effective investigations into all cases of election-related violence, and to ensure those responsible are brought to justice."
In the run-up to the vote, rights groups condemned a "wave of terror" in the east African nation, including a string of high-profile abductions that escalated in the final days.
Much public anger has been directed at Hassan's son, Abdul Halim Hafidh Ameir, accused of overseeing the crackdown.
(with AFP)
