Tanzania's Mkapa pledges to act on Zanzibar, fight corruption

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (Reuters) -- President Benjamin Mkapa opened Tanzania's new parliament on Monday with a promise to fight corruption and to take action to save the troubled union between the mainland and semi-autonomous Zanzibar.

In a speech boycotted by opposition members from Zanzibar, Mkapa pledged to tackle poverty and corruption in his second five-year term and also said a special committee would soon be formed to confront the Zanzibar issue.

"There is no union without problems. It's true there are problems, and we shall work to resolve them," Mkapa said.

Mkapa won re-election in last month's general elections with 71.7 percent support, but voting was marred by accusations that the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Party for the Revolution) cheated in Zanzibar.

The opposition Civic United Front (CUF), which has its stronghold in Zanzibar, refuses to recognize Mkapa's victory, and its elected representatives there are boycotting the parliaments of both the union and Zanzibar.

Tanzania was formed when mainland Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged in 1964, but serious divisions have emerged in recent years and a growing number of islanders want greater autonomy.

Mkapa said a committee would be set up within 60 days to look at the problems, but he said he wanted the union preserved and called it "a symbol of unity in the whole of Africa."

There were widespread irregularities in Zanzibar's elections, with many polling stations opening hours late and ballot papers going missing.

Voting was repeated in 16 of Zanzibar's 50 constituencies, but the CUF wanted a repeat election across the islands, which lie just off the mainland in the Indian Ocean, and boycotted the partial revote.

A Commonwealth observer mission said the Zanzibar elections were a "shambles" and should be held again, but Tanzania's election authorities refused to back down and Mkapa was critical of international governments in his speech on Monday.

"It's not true that Africans do not know how to respect human rights or democracy," Mkapa said. "While in Africa, the community is given priority before self; our friends in the West put the individual first even when it destroys the community."

"There are those who would like to impose their view on us, but my advice to my fellow Africans is to reject this."

Cheered loudly by his party's parliamentarians, Mkapa said many of Africa's current problems -- dictatorships and wars -- were a result of colonialism and the Cold War.

Mkapa's CCM holds an overwhelming majority in the new parliament. It has run the country since independence from Britain in 1961 and has remained dominant on the mainland despite the introduction of multiparty elections in 1995.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

See related sites about Africa

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.