June 2011
By Elias Mhegera
THE Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) has been alarmed by the extent of lawlessness in this country speculating that it might be a reflection of poor governance.
Giving a general overview of the human rights situation in Tanzania in the first half of the year 2011 Onesmo Olengurumwa who is the assistant research officer with the centre said that the right to life is still highly denied through a number of factors.
He underscored that so far four regions go without regional commissioners, while some districts do not have district commissioners and funny enough even the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) is lacking some commissioners.
Olengurumwa who was accompanied by Imelda Urio who is director of empowerment and advocacy and current director of the LHRC, said that regional commissioners and district commissioners heads defense and security committees in regions and districts by virtue of their capacities.
To this extent he was worried that absence of such key figures could weaken the working of the security bodies under their supervision. In the same capacity he was worried of the performance of the CHRAGG in the absence of some commissioners.
He suggested that the Government remove posts of regional and district commissioners if it has found that they are of no significance. However this is not the first time that this issue was discussed in the lime light as it has been discussed in many forums including the media.
The human rights expert and activist suggested that the community at large take human rights issues seriously as they are for the betterment of human life and peaceful co-existence. He remarked that killings due to witchcraft beliefs, gender based violence; mob-violence and extra-judicial killings have now become a common factor in almost all major cities in Tanzania.
Incidentally in the education sector he earmarked serious challenges including lack of teachers, ineffective mechanisms of loans to students of high learning institutions, and poor governance in general,
He condemned the police brutality which has continued unabated to the extent of causing at least 20 deaths within the six past months. This also had gone hand in hand with extrajudicial killings of at least 500 people in the same period.
He revisited the harassment of small scale miners in Liwale –Lindi and the Ulanga Police brutality where About 4000 small scale miners had accused the Selous Game Wardens to have had mistreated them using flame firewood to burn their hands and legs. The warden claimed that the artisans invaded the game reserve.
Olengurumwa mentioned the brutality by Police officials at KiruValley on May 02, 2011 in Babati, where 41 people were arbitrary arrested by police and charged for grave offences such as armed robbery, malicious damage to properties, arson and conspiracy to commit the offences.
He boasted that the LHRC intervention lead to 29 people (6 children, 8 females, 15 males) being set free, while one person by the name of Laida lost his life in Police Custody.
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