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Police shoot opposition supporters in ZanzibarGroup trying to overrun police station, chief saysZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) -- Riot police shot at least 19 opposition supporters who were trying to force their way through a roadblock to attend an election rally Sunday, opposition leaders said, adding that none of the victims were killed. But Zanzibar's head of criminal investigations Ramadhani Kinyogo said only eight people were wounded after they resisted orders not to gather at a campaign rally because there were reports of impending violence. Riot police used teargas to disperse a violent group of opposition supporters who were trying to overrun a police station after attacking an officer with stones, Zanzibar's Northern regional police chief Khamis Kheri said. "People riding motorbikes, bicycles and in commuter buses suddenly tried to overrun a police station. The (paramilitary police) tried to reason with them not to carry out their plans, but they attacked an officer with a stone and he lost his teeth," Kheri said. "Police then had to act to disperse the group." More than 48 people have been seriously injured in recent pre-election violence in the run up to the October 30 polls in this semiautonomous Indian Ocean archipelago. More than a dozen people have died in politically motivated violence in the last eight months, with dozens of homes and offices set ablaze and other violent incidents. The normally peaceful tropical islands suffered violence in the last elections in 1995 and 2000, but usually only in the weeks around election day. The elections are considered to be the most fiercely contested in the archipelago since Tanzania restored multiparty politics in 1992. Zanzibar united with Tanganyika in 1964 after the violent ouster of the Arab Sultan to form the United Republic of Tanzania. October's elections are for both Tanzanian and Zanzibari regional presidencies. A vote for Tanzania's 322-member national legislature, Zanzibar's 50-member House of Representatives and local councilors in both parts of the union will also be held that day. The main opposition Civic United Front has accused the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party of rigging the last two elections, which international observers have said were seriously flawed. The violence started early this year and both sides have accused the other of recruiting youth militias to stage attacks. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
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http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/10/09/zanzibar.ap |
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