Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan delivered her first address to parliament on Friday since winning re-election on October 29, in a vote the African Union (AU) said was a violation of democratic values.
In his remarks, the President promised to convene a commission to investigate the killings during last month’s election protests. He vowed to support peace and reconciliation efforts, as well as calling for the release of some detained protesters.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk had earlier called for an investigation into the killings as well as allegations of concealment of evidence.
The United Nations said it believed hundreds of people were killed in violence that followed the election, in which leading opposition candidates were denied entry.
The main opposition Chadema party said more than 1,000 people were killed by Tanzanian security forces.
Although the government has dismissed opposition statements over deaths and injuries as exaggerated, it has yet to provide its own estimate of the impact of what is being described as the East African country’s worst political crisis in decades.
Tanzanian President calls for release of protesters
Expressing her condolences to the bereaved relatives, Suluhu Hassan told MPs, “I express my condolences to all the families who have lost their loved ones.”
He also urged prosecutors to drop treason charges against some of the hundreds of protesters arrested, whom he said “didn’t know what they were doing” and were “just following the crowd.”
“The government has taken the step of setting up a commission to investigate what happened, so that we can find the root cause of the problem,” he said.
Critics have called for Suluhu Hassan to step down as a hypocrite, while the government argues that security forces did nothing wrong in monitoring the protests and that the election was fair.
In his remarks, the president acknowledged CHADEMA’s demands that constitutional change would be the key to meaningful dialogue and reconciliation, and promised on Friday that his administration would launch a constitutional reform process within its first 100 days.
Edited by Shawn Sinico