JK,Shein in crisis meeting
Muslim cleric Farid Hadi Ahmed is escorted by youths after praying at Mbuyuni Mosque in Zanzibar yesterday. He spoke out against the burning of churches, saying Zanzibaris should resort to peaceful means to press for the isles’ secession from the Union. Sheikh Ahmed is among religious leaders being sought by police in connection with recent disturbances in which a number of churches were torched.
Zanzibar.The President of Zanzibar, Dr Mohamed Ali Shein, yesterday travelled to Dar es Salaam for a crucial meeting with President Jakaya Kikwete in the wake of the weekend disturbances in the Isles that have largely been blamed on socio-religious zealots. The meeting called by President Kikwete comes only a day after some people questioned the silence of top national leaders in the face of a crisis they widely described as “very serious”.
In the trip to Dar es Salaam, Dr Shein was accompanied by the CCM deputy secretary general (Zanzibar) Mr Vuai Ali Vuai.Minister of State in the Second Vice President’s Office Mohammed Aboud confirmed that Dr Shein travelled to Dar es Salaam for a crucial meeting called by the Union President.
Mr Aboud told a clergymen’s meeting here yesterday that the Zanzibar President had left Zanzibar for a meeting in Dar.Meanwhile, Christian religious leaders meeting here yesterday issued a statement, in which they accuse the Shein administration of not taking appropriate action that would have prevented “recurrent attacks on church buildings and church properties”.
Reading the statement on behalf of his colleagues, the head of the Anglican Church in Tanzania (ACT), Bishop Valentino Mokiwa, said Christians were nearing the upper limit of their tolerance over the government’s lack of action against people who have been attacking churches.
He noted that since 2001, some 25 churches have been torched in Zanzibar but no single culprit has been punished for the crime.
And when contacted to clarify whether President Kikwete has called for a meeting with his Zanzibar counterpart, director of communication in the President’s Office, Mr Salva Rweyemamu could only say there was no need of doubting the minister’s (Aboud’s) statement.
“Why should you doubt the statement delivered by a government minister? I urge you to rely on Mr Aboud’s statement… you should quote him as the right source,” Mr Rweyemamu said.
Mr Kikwete, who was in Arusha on Tuesday evening returned to Dar es Salaam and was yesterday engaged in various official activities including the meeting with Zanzibar leaders.
Reacting to concerns that Dr Shein’s silence on the weekend chaos was disturbing, Mr Aboud said the Isles’ head of government was closely monitoring the situation and he would ultimately issue a statement.
“You never know; maybe after he’s done with his Dar es Salaam trip, he will deliver a statement on the position of his administration but for the time being we, his aides, are doing our best to restore peace here… it is improper for the President to rush into issuing statements whenever anything happens,” he said.
Because of the Dar es Salaam trip, the bishops, who had wanted to have an audience with Dr Shein, failed to do so; neither could they see his second-in command, Ambassador Seif Idd, who was said to be abroad.In their statement, the bishops blamed the Zanzibar government for not doing enough to protect Christians in the Isles.
Their statement was drafted during a daylong meeting at Kariakoo, where the clerics discussed the destiny of Christianity in Zanzibar following the recent attacks that targeted churches.
The bishops’ delegation, led by the head of Anglican Church in Tanzania, Dr Valentino Mokiwa, was received by the Minister of State in the Second Vice President’s Office, to whom they delivered their message.
Said Dr Mokiwa: “We’ve come to give to Dr Shein our position on the chaos…at least 25 churches have been burnt since 2001 but nothing has been done by the government and nobody has been taken to court over the incidents.”
Dr Mokiwa told Mr Aboud that had they met Mr Kikwete or Dr Shein, they would have delivered the same strongly worded message because their patience had been overstretched.
“We’ve been tolerant for a long time… and now we are saying: enough is enough,” said Dr Mokiwa.
He said Christians in Zanzibar live as second-class citizens in their own country, adding that they are tired of that situation and if the government has failed to protect them, it should say so, so that they could look into how they would protect themselves.
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