Tanzania charges more than 100 with treason over election protests

Violent protests broke out across the east African country on election day, with sources indicating hundreds -- if not thousands -- may have been killed. At the same time, a six-day internet shutdown hampered the release of verified information.

On Friday, hundreds of people appeared in court in the economic capital Dar es Salaam.

According to one judicial source, the court had charged 138 people, while another source reported that more than 100 people were being prosecuted.

A charge sheet seen by AFP accused them of having "the intention to obstruct" the election and intimidate the executive by causing serious damage to government property.

"Some of them they have been beaten, they are sick, they have not received any medical treatment," Paul Kisabo, a lawyer with the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, told AFP after seeing the accused in court.

He said that because treason was a non-bailable offence, they would remain in detention until their next hearing.

Opposition party Chadema has said that at least 800 people were killed in election violence. Diplomatic and security sources backed that estimate, adding there were reports the numbers could reach thousands.

The authorities have so far declined to release any toll for dead or injured.

- 'So many bodies' -

In a joint statement with six other NGOs on Friday, the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) said there was "excessive use of force against unarmed demonstrators, including reprisal killings of civilians, some in their own homes.

"Families have been left traumatized, and children have witnessed violence against their parents," it added.

Young people in particular had been targeted, "often caught unaware", said the statement.

Hundreds of people had been arrested and some were still being held without bail, it added.

The "extent of human rights abuses is yet to be fully uncovered", the LHRC statement warned, criticising the internet shutdown and media restrictions.

Amos Ntobi, secretary with the opposition Chadema party, said he estimated hundreds had died in his northern Mwanza region alone.

"We saw people being shot in broad daylight. There were bodies all over the streets -- some people were killed instantly, others left badly wounded," he told AFP.

"There are so many bodies in the hospitals."

Ntobi said he had attended at least nine funerals, two for children aged nine and 11 -- one shot near his home, the other while returning from a shop.

Most of the adult victims had either died of gunshot wounds, or had been "beaten to death".

He also said some local party leaders remained unaccounted for.

- 'Compromised' poll -

In the run-up to the election, authorities swept the board of any opposition either by jailing them or barring them from running.

In an initial report African election observers said Tanzanians had been unable to "express their democratic will" thanks to the barring of opposition candidates, censorship and intimidation, as well as signs of rigging on election day.

African Union election observers also said the poll was "compromised".

mnk-rbu/jj/giv