CUF’s ‘tooth for tooth’ principle was to protect its ‘victory’

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After losing the 1995 polls in Zanzibar, Cuf secretary general Seif Shariff Hamad announced in 2000 that the party would apply the ‘tooth for tooth’ principle to protect its ‘victory.’

On January 15 the same year, Mr Hamad was quoted speaking about the same issue, but his statement was castigated by then Union Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye when adjourning the Parliament in February in Dodoma Region. Later on Mr Hamad was inter-viewed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), where he said during the 2000 polls they would not agree to be victimized and that they had no planning of boycotting the General Election. “If there was a time that Zanzibar witnessed widespread human rights abuse, then it was during the past five year (1995-2000)”, said Mr Hamad. He added that “all key institutions in Zanzibar reached the point of making decisions to please top government leaders. ”Hardly a week after Mr Hamad had declared the ‘jino kwa jino’ policy, President Dr Salmin Amour of Zanzibar, on Saturday March 11, addressed a public rally in Jadida area, Wete Town on Pemba Island.

Dr Amour said CCM had planned to win over Cuf with more votes than those of the year 1995.On Tuesday March 28, Dr Salmin met with a special emissary from the Secretary Gen-eral of the Commonwealth, Dr Moses Anaf, at Zanzibar’s State House. Dr Anaf was told by Dr Salmin that he (Amour) was ready to implement the reconciliation Agreement, but he would do so ‘slowly but surely.’ Their talks centred on get-ting the final statement of the Government of Zanzibar about implementing the reconciliation agreement. However, Dr Salmin told Dr Anaf that his government had already implemented almost 90 percent of the accord. The president further told Dr Anaf that out of 38 points of the agreement, 30 had been accepted by his government with no objection, six had been revisited and two were rejected because they were contradictory.

On July 11, the opposition Chadema party accepted the Cuf ‘jino kwa jino’ policy. Chadema chairman Bob Makani said the party was happy with the policy, and it would be used in all of its public meetings because, he added, it was a move towards countering vote rigging by CCM. On August 23, Cuf launched its campaign for the October 2000 General Election while vowing that its members and support-ers would have died on streets had their victory would be sto-len. That was said by the party’s deputy chairman Shaaban Mloo. “I’m telling (Robert) Mboma (Chief of Defence Forces), if the army intervenes in our victory and the police rob us, we will die with them in the streets ... and the ‘jino kwa jino’ policy will work... In Nineteen ninty five (1995) you left us and now there are signs that you really don’t like us. So, our policy is about ‘jino kwa jino’,” insisted Mloo.

CUF’s ‘tooth for tooth’ principle was to protect its ‘victory’

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