CONFIDENTIAL
TANZANIA
Report by British High Commission, Dar es Salaam
General Observations
The declared policy of the government on freedom could hardly be more laudable, but the distinction between national freedom and individual freedom is never drawn by Tanzanian leaders. It is assumed that national freedom is the ultimate achievement in which all nationals share and should therefore desire nothing further.
Government and Party treatment of individual Tanzanians and some foreign nationals sometimes shows scant regard for the accepted principles of individual human rights. The breadth of this gap between the declared devotion to freedom and practice is regrettably greater than is ever admitted by government leaders.
Right No.
(i)
(ii)
Rating suggested by Post
Imprisonment without trial seems to be a fairly wide-spread practice, but probably involves no more than 500 people at any one time. Those detained without trial are held ostensibly under the Preventive Detention Act, but no regard is paid to the formal requirements laid down in the Act. The Tanzanians have in detention without trial more than 50 SWAPO "dissidents" Detention without trial is also used for members of Zimbabwean Freedom Movements who refuse training or commit other offences in the camps. Unsuspecting tourists sometimes find themselves detained for periods from a few hours to several months on suspicion of spying, or failure to comply with some regulation.
There is no evidence of the use of torture on the mainland. Complaints are made from time to time of brutal behaviour by police, prison staff and members of the peoples militia but this falls short of "torture". Allegations of torture have been made against the Zanzibari government by defend- ents during the current treason trial.
They
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CONFIDENTIAL
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