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Tanzania: Soften Positions to End Zanzibar Now
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
EDITORIAL
4 July 2008
Posted to the web 4 July 2008
The standoff between the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi and the Civic Front over the political crisis in Zanzibar is not helping the country at all. At a time when Tanzanians should be rallying together for development, there are divisions and tension in the Isles.
Appeals by President Jakaya Kikwete and Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda to the representatives of both parties to return to the negotiating table have failed to thaw the cold relations between them. This simply flies in the face of Tanzania's well-earned reputation of a peaceful country that often goes beyond its borders to help solve conflicts in neighbouring countries.
President Kikwete is now increasingly being taunted as the peace negotiator, who leaves his own house burning as he goes to put out fires elsewhere. This is quite unfair, of course, considering the fact that it's President Kikwete, who on assuming power in 2005, told Parliament of his commitment to restore peace and tranquility in Zanzibar.
For several months now, we have witnessed bitter exchanges between CCM and CUF leaders, each group blaming the other for stalling the Zanzibar peace process.
And sadly, for the ordinary people of the beautiful twin islands of Unguja and Pemba and the Mainland, the sabre rattling continues. It's needlessly consuming the energies of the people that could have been channelled into development. With the spectre of conflict hovering over the Isles, the tourism industry and other sectors cannot prosper.
CUF has rebuffed the Government's call in Parliament to return to the talks with CCM, arguing that the Mwafaka talks are a must for any progress towards a solution to be made.
On Wednesday, CUF national chairman Ibrahim Lipumba and the party's national executive committee reiterated their earlier call for the intervention of President Kikwete to bring together secretary general Maalim Seif Hamad and President Amani Abeid Karume.
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The hardening of positions by the CCM top brass and the CUF leadership will only prolong the conflict and anxiety in the Isles. Negotiations call for a softening of positions and a give-and-take spirit. The leaders owe it to the people to get together and accelerate the search for an amicable solution to this purely political problem.
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