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.