TANZANIA: Zanzibar police shoot at crowd, 18 wounded

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

DAR ES SALAAM, 10 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - At least 18 supporters of the main opposition party in Tanzania's semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar were wounded on Sunday after police opened fire on a crowd.

"I heard the gunshots," said Salma Mohammed, a Zanzibar-based reporter covering the political campaign there ahead of 30 October elections.

She and other witnesses said riot police, known as the Field Force Unit, fired bullets and teargas canisters into the crowd at the town of Donge 30 km north of Zanzibar's capital, Stone Town.

The confrontation occurred after supporters of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) party attempted to hold a campaign rally that authorities had cancelled in the last moment.

The deputy director of the police Criminal Investigations Department for Zanzibar, Ramadhan Kinyogo, said CUF supporters had hurled stones at the police and that one police officer was injured.

He denied that police responded with live bullets.

However, a doctor at Al-Rahma Hospital near Stone Town told IRIN on Sunday that at least eight of the 18 injured people had serious gunshot wounds. Other injuries occurred as the crowd panicked and trampled each other in a stampede, Mohammed said.

Dozens of people were also arrested, she said, including Tanzanian photojournalist Hamisi Halfan.

Zanzibar is the stronghold of the CUF. The party lost previous elections in 1995 and 2000 but party leaders have complained of government fraud, intimidation and violence.

[ENDS]