Natural Resources and Tourism deputy minister Lazaro Nyalandu (top,
right) helps get a victim of last Sunday’s church blast, Ms Jennifer
Joachim, into a plane in Arusha yesterday. Eight people who were injured
in the attack were yesterday airlifted to Dar es Slaam for further
treatment. PHOTO | mussa juma
By By The Citizen Reporters
(email the author)
In Summary
Chief Sheikh Issa Shaaban Simba, said the Sunday
attack has brought to light a more complicated motive in the series of
attacks targeting clerics and the Christian establishment.
Dar es Salaam/Dodoma.Last
Sunday’s bomb attack on a church in Arusha raises fears that there is
more to the violence targeting clerics than meets the eye.
The assault has also put the government in a tight spot over the state of the nation’s security.
Questions abound on what it knows about the identity and intentions of those who sponsor the violence.
In addition to contesting the simple
“religious/sectarian violence” theory, the Arusha attack has laid bare
significant intelligence weaknesses within the security agencies.
Polycarp Cardinal Pengo’s assertions that the
Arusha attack and similar cases in the past are not religious in nature
have given impetus to arguments that there could be a wider plot
underfoot.
The head of the Catholic Church in Tanzania said
yesterday that he had information from credible sources that the attack
during the consecration of a new church building at Olasiti Parish was
not the work of a religious group.
Vatican envoy Francisco Padilla presided over the
ceremony. “This should make us Christians wary of retaliating, because
this would spiral into nationwide violence,” said Cardinal Pengo.
Archbishop Padilla and Archbishop Josephat Lebulu,
who accompanied Cardinal Pengo, escaped unhurt in the attack in which
three people were killed, one on the spot.
Over 60 others were injured. At least nine people
have since been held for questioning, including four foreigners from the
Middle East and three Tanzanians. The nationality of the two others has
not been disclosed.
Initial police reports had it that three of the
foreigners were from Saudi Arabia. But the United Arab Emirates said
yesterday that three of those arrested in connection with the Arusha
incident were its citizens.
Chief Sheikh Issa Shaaban Simba, said the Sunday
attack has brought to light a more complicated motive in the series of
attacks targeting clerics and the Christian establishment.
Sheikh Simba added: “One thing is certain. The
theory that the attacks are a result of religious tensions, or that
certain religious groups are perpetrating these incidents, is becoming
less
Is it terrorism?
The official position of Bakwata (Muslim Council of Tanzania) is
that there is no direct evidence that links the Sunday incident in
Arusha, specifically, with religious tensions--which, by the way, have
not reached the level of spiralling into violence.”
He wants the security and law enforcement agencies
to provide an answer to the burning question of the day: What is the
nature of the attacks and who is behind them?
“Even the capture of citizens from the UAE or
Saudi Arabia does not serve as evidence that the attacks are
religious-based,” Mr Simba said.
Is it terrorism?
Government officials have said the Arusha attack
was “terrorism”. When they visited the victims of the bomb blast in
Arusha this week, both President Jakaya Kikwete and Vice President
Mohammed Gharib Bilal vowed to crack down on terrorism inside and
outside the country before it could destabilise the country.
But rather than answers, even more questions have
been raised on what the government knows about the Arusha case and
similar attacks in Zanzibar.
Concerns are also mounting on why the government
constantly appears to be caught wrong-footed by the attackers and why
capturing the perpetrators and prosecuting them is proving such a hard
nut to crack for the police.
Catholic Priest Ambrose Mkenda was injured last
Christmas when unknown assailants, who are still at large, shot him at
close range.
In February, Fr Evarist Mushi was shot dead in his
car as he was heading to St Theresa Church in Beit Saraas in Zanzibar,
where he was to lead Sunday Mass. One person was arrested in connection
with the killing but he has yet to be formally charged in court.
The chairman of the opposition Civic United Front,
Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, said yesterday that time is running out for the
government to solve the mystery of the attacks on clerics.
Equally important, the government has to face the
public and explain what it knows about the attacks along with what it is
doing to investigate the incidents.
“It is very important for the government to
disclose information related to the incidents to assure Tanzanians,”
Prof Lipumba said.
Confusion reigns
watertight.
“Failing to do so could lead to greater religious intolerance, he added.
Confusion reigns
Parliament’s committee on Security and Defence yesterday passed a motion condemning the Arusha bombing.
Legislators who spoke in support of the motion
declared that the attack had everything to do with hate speech,
religious tensions and the mushrooming of religious denominations with
clerics who appear to be free to preach hatred among the different
faiths.
Reported by Frank Aman, Anuciatha Lucas and Peter Nyanje
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