Ca. 3.000 personer, de fleste ældre kvinder, blev anklaget for hekseri og lynchet fra 2005 til i fjor, 40 procent mener de lever i et ufrit land, manglen på sundhedspersonale er enorm og konstant voksende, stadig flere går ud af skolen uden eksamen og de fleste 2015-mål er en fjern drøm.
Det er nogle af punkterne i en dyster rapport om menneskerettig-hedernes reelle stilling anno 2011 i Tanzania, i et af de største modtagerlande af dansk udviklingsbistand overhovedet.
Rapporten er begået af den ansete lokale menneskeretsgruppe “Legal and Human Rights Centre” (LHRC) og kom ud mandag.
Især konsekvenserne af udbredt overtro i dele af det store østafrikanske land falder i øjnene hos et vestligt publikum. Ifølge Legal and Human Rights Centre blev ofrene lynchet af skrækslagne naboer, som troede de var hekse.
“Især ældre kvinder med røde øjne bliver dræbt”, hedder det.
Menneskerets-gruppen forklarer, at røde øjne opfattes som et tegn på hekseri, mens det i virkeligheden ofte skyldes, at komøj anvendes som brændsel i områder med knappe ressourcer.
Mange lokale mener, at hekseri er årsag til alt fra sterilitet, fattigdom, mislykkede forretninger, sult og til jordskælv.
De hårdest ramte provinser er Mwanza og Shinyanga i det nordlige Tanzania. Eksempelvis blev 242 personer dræbt i tidsrummet mellem januar 2010 og januar i fjor alene i Shinyanga-provinsen, skriver den 16 år gamle og politisk uafhængige NGO i sin rapport.
Her er pressemeddelelsen fra LHRC om rapporten:
In 2011, Tanzania marked 50 years of independence with a lot of challenges and minor improvements in the field of human rights.
The LHRC noted a lot of human rights violations and abuses in the area of right to development, right to life and people’s participation in governance and provision of social services.
The right to life in Tanzania continues to be violated by the state, its agencies and. Individuals. For instance, LHRC surveys indicate that the right to life in Tanzania is also violated in the following manner: the presence of the death penalty, extra-judicial killings, and killings related to witchcraft beliefs, mob violence, suicide, domestic violence and road accidents.
The democratic processes are still marred by legal and practical problems including the denial of the right to freely assemble and form peaceful demonstrations. For instance, 39,9 per cent of the respondents suggested that the right to enjoy freedom of assembly in the country is very poor compared to 5,9 per cent who responded positively.
Tanzania has failed to attain development in various aspects of life, such as: the delivery of social services, infrastructure, employment, and revenue collection (skatte- og afgiftsopkrævning), the use of natural resources, power supply, transport sector, environmental protection, investment, and economic growth despite marking 50 years of independence.
Other human rights issues of concern in 2011 include:
a) Unlawful evictions (udsættelser af beboere) continued in the country;
b) The killings of more than 600 people due to witchcraft beliefs with the most susceptible (udsatte) group being elderly women with red eyes;
c) The health sector faces a number of common problems such as lack of health facilities, shortage of human resources and high prevalence of communicable (smitsomme) and non communicable diseases like HIV, Cancer and Malaria and high mortality rates of both children and women.
For instance, this report indicates that Tanzania has a 68 per cent shortage in health workers;
d) The performance in primary and secondary education in Tanzania is dropping dramatically. According to LHRC’s surveys and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, secondary and primary education performance is dropping yearly.
Generally, the results show that pass rate (færdiggørelse af ens uddannelse) has decreased from 72 per cent in 2009 to 53 per cent in 2011. For instance, in 2010 12 per cent scored Division I-III while in 2011 only 7 per cent of the total candidates scored Division I-III.
e) Students’ strikes are on the rise in the country with no government effort to end this problem in education sector. For instance, from January to December 2011, more than ten Colleges and Universities experienced students’ protest and strike which resulted into suspension and dismissal of some students;
f) Tanzania still remains to be one of the poorest nations in the world and is unlikely to meet its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Regionally, the economy is not growing as fast as its neighbours. Various world economic surveys ranked Tanzania as the slowest growing economy in East Africa;
g) Rising in inflation results from the increase in the prices of various goods and services, in particular, fuel and energy. An official with the Bank of Tanzania (BOT) stated that fuel and energy costs have greatly contributed to the rise of inflation rate in the country from 14,1 per cent in August 2011 to over 19 per cent in December 2011.
For instance, the price of sugar rose from 1,500/= to 3,500/= per kg in 2011;
h) Pastoralists (nomadefolk som masaierne) in the country have been celebrating 50 years of ruthless evictions (tvangsflytninger) and economic impoverishment. Tanzania lacks a pastoral land tenure regime (græsningsrettigheder).
The government has continued using the same land laws introduced by the colonial legal systems in land administration. The lack of legal protection for pastoralists’ land ownership has led to several major pastoralists and other land users related land conflicts in Tanzania.
Om rapportens baggrund:
Methodologically, the researchers used both primary and secondary data collection techniques. At least 6.000 people were randomly picked and directly interviewed. The research dwelt on field work, surveys, focus group discussions, media and online research.
In addition, LHRC verified through direct information from various institutions relevant to the issues discussed; Microsoft Excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) were used as tools for data analysis.
Furthermore, LHRC used reliable sources from every region of Tanzania Mainland on various issues. This report is also a result of comparative analysis with other African countries as well as the rest of the world on human rights compliance and issues reported.
Commendable jobs by researchers, writers, editors and collaborators together have produced a detailed document giving readers a current and authentic situation of human rights in Tanzania.
Se mere om Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) på
http://www.humanrights.or.tz
