Tanzanian president defends police after hundreds killed in October election protests

By Larry Madowo, CNN

(CNN) — Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Tuesday backed her country’s security forces who are accused of killing hundreds of unarmed demonstrators, claiming the protesters intended to overthrow her government.

The East African leader alleged without evidence that young people had been paid to take to the streets following October’s disputed election.. “These were not protests, it was violence with malicious intentions,” she said in an address to the nation. “What happened was a manufactured event and those who planned it intended to bring down our government. In that situation, the government has a responsibility, and we swear to defend this country and its borders, to protect the safety of citizens and their property. And in that case, the force used is proportional to the event.”

The main opposition party, CHADEMA, claims that more than 2,000 people were killed after the election. The government has dismissed the numbers as “hugely exaggerated” but has refused to confirm a death toll, focusing instead on property damage.

“So when we’re told that we used too much force in that event, what was the smallest force? “Were we supposed to wait until the protesters – who had planned to overthrow the government – had succeeded?”

An exclusive CNN investigation found that police fired at unarmed protesters who posed no threat to them. Satellite imagery, eyewitness accounts and video obtained by CNN also found signs of mass graves north of Dar es Salaam. The government has rejected CNN’s reporting as misleading but has not disputed any specific facts.

Hassan dismissed widespread youth disaffection with her government, insisting the protesters were unpatriotic. “The youth had no reason at all to be on the streets but were just misled to sing about issues that don’t concern them,” she said, speaking at a gathering of elders in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

She also falsely asserted that the opposition had refused to participate in the election – which she claimed to have won with 98% of the votes – even though the two main rival parties were barred from running on technicalities. CHADEMA leader Tundu Lissu has been imprisoned since April, facing a treason charge that carries the death penalty. Human rights groups say many other government critics disappeared, were arrested or allegedly abducted by police to silence them in the period leading up to the election.

The president angrily criticized the opposition, civil society, religious leaders and foreign governments that have condemned the brutal crackdown on protests and the rollback of democracy in the country. “Those foreigners keep saying Tanzania should do one, two, three, who are you?,” she posed. “Do they still think they’re still our masters, our colonizers? Why, because of the little money they give us?”

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