stltoday
Post-Dispatch  Subscribe to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
home News business sports Entertainment shopping Jobs Autos realestate Ad Zone Your Journal
number one St. Louis website SITE SEARCH >>     STORY FINDER
Weather
News > World > Story
President of Zanzibar makes plea for peace

ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA

The winner of Zanzibar's disputed election appealed for peace Friday as the Indian Ocean archipelago celebrated the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan after days of political violence.

"The people of Zanzibar made their choice, and God blessed their choice," President Amani Abeid Karume said in his first public address since being sworn in Wednesday for a second and final term. "There is no good reason for people not to respect the law."

Karume's main rival, Seif Shariff Hamad, says the Oct. 30 election was stolen. Hamad's supporters in the Civic United Front party fought running battles with police for four days before, during and after the poll in opposition strongholds in this semiautonomous part of Tanzania. At least two people were killed, and scores were injured and arrested.


Opposition leaders - who say two previous elections were also tainted by violence, intimidation and fraud - have promised a civil disobedience campaign similar to one that toppled the government in Ukraine last year. They plan to meet in the commercial capital, Dar Es Salaam, on Saturday to finalize plans for peaceful mass demonstrations in Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania ahead of upcoming national elections.

Voting in national and regional elections on the mainland had also been scheduled for Sunday but was postponed to Dec. 14 because of the death of a vice presidential candidate.

In a speech to government and religious officials gathered at a former palace in Zanzibar's fabled Stone Town, Karume urged political leaders to "control their followers' emotions and preach peace to them."

A 21-gun salute ushered in the end of Ramadan on Friday. Residents of the largely Muslim islands wore their finest, but many opted to forgo the usual outdoor celebrations and mark the day quietly at home for fear of more violence.

A few camera-toting tourists wandered through Stone Town's narrow alleys as anti-riot police cruised by in trucks, some armed with tear gas and gas masks.

"Today is mostly normal, but you can never know," said Nourjehan Ibrahim, 45, a secretary who planned to spend the day with friends. "Where I live, there was too much wildness."

Clashes on the second island of Pemba killed up to nine people on both sides earlier this week, Hamad and a member of a regional security force said, though police confirmed only two deaths - a security force member and a civilian teenager.

Security force members armed with machetes and rifles raided homes, breaking down doors, looting valuables and roughing up suspected opposition supporters, according to witnesses reached by telephone.

Calm returned to the island Friday as security forces withdrew, residents said.

Karume, whose socialist Chama Cha Mapinduzi, or Revolutionary Party, has ruled Zanzibar for more than 30 years, narrowly won re-election with 53 percent of the vote, according to official results. Hamad, whose Civic United Front promises wholesale economic reforms, won 46 percent.


YESTERDAY'S MOST
E-MAILED STORIES
Is Jimmy Massey telling the truth about Iraq?
A-B gets into the spirit of things with Jekyll & Hyde
Jocketty expects activity earlier
Busch Stadium demolition begins
Why did the press swallow Massey's stories?
Busch demolition will take months
Cardinals are making more, so why not spend more?
Motorcycle crash kills civic leader, former CEO
Illinois woman will give stadium one of its last big hits
Big Brothers/Big Sisters is getting bigger
spacer
Featured Jobs
FEATURED JOBS
 
   
Ad Zone
ABOUT US | ADVERTISE | CONTACT US | HELP | PRIVACY | TERMS OF SERVICE | COPYRIGHT