No justice in sight for Tanzanian woman killed by US Peace Corps officer

Dar es Salaam. There is no light yet at the end of the proverbial tunnel for justice to be done to Rabia Issa who was killed in Tanzania in 2019 by an American Peace Corps official.

This comes despite mounting pressure from human rights activists and justice advocates in the country and beyond.
Yesterday, the US Embassy in Tanzania couldn’t indicate measures taken following the incident and whether the accused Peace Corps member. John M. Peterson would be extradited back to Tanzania to face trial.
In an email sent to The Citizen regarding the matter, US Embassy’s spokesman in Dar es Salaam, James Rodriguez, quoted the Peace Corps chief executive officer Carol Spahn as saying: “Ms Issa’s tragic death broke my heart and horrified me. Nothing can replace the loss of Ms Issa’s life or heal the harm experienced by so many, and my condolences go out to her family, the other victims, their loved ones, and everyone impacted by this tragedy.
“The actions of this individual are in total contradiction to the values of the Peace Corps, and we strongly condemn them. Ultimately, this is a personnel matter and federal privacy laws prevent us from releasing specifics beyond publicly available information.”
An update on the tragic incident issued by the Peace Corps yesterday said that the agency continues to help the deceased’s family financially as other legal procedures continue.
However, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Simon Sirro urged Ms Issa’s family to follow legal procedures to ensure that justice takes its course.
“Hopefully, the incident was reported at a police station. Therefore, family members and relatives should follow up proceedings of the matter at the police station in order for justice to take its course,” said the law enforcement chief.

But even as the IGP urged the family to follow up, records at the police station where the case was first reported are non-existent- in what suggests a clinical attempt of clearing up.

On her Facebook page, Ms Libby Glabe has organized a fundraiser titled: ‘Help Support Rabia Issa’s Family.’ It aims at collecting $20,000 for the deceased’s family.
The Citizen independently established that, by mid-day yesterday, a total of $13,205 had been contributed by well-wishers globally.
Ms Issa, 47 - the mother of three - was killed as two others were injured in a series of car crashes whose driver was identified as Mr Peterson. The accidents began after Mr Peterson left a bar where he had been drinking and took a female companion to his home.
Witnesses pelted the man’s car with rocks and pursued it on motorcycles as he fled the scenes of the accident.
The chaotic, deadly episode ended when he slammed into a pole and was detained by police. But within hours, Peace Corps and US Embassy staff rushed the man onto a plane and out of the country.
Tanzanian authorities were unable to charge him in court, and the US Department of Justice later declined to file criminal charges because of a lack of jurisdiction.
The man remained on Peace Corps payroll for 18 months before resigning in February 2021 the federal agency said.
The incident was briefly mentioned in a June report to Congress from the Peace Corps Office of Inspector General, but the summary is sparse and lacks key details.
It does not say when the incident happened, identify the African nation where it took place, name the employee or say how much in US taxpayer dollars was spent in the aftermath.
It also does not identify the woman he killed, who is referred to only as a “street vendor.”
USA TODAY has since interviewed nearly a dozen sources familiar with the August 24, 2019, incident, including Americans who knew of the events at the time and relatives of the woman who was killed, several of whom were at the scene of the crash in Dar es Salaam.
The newspaper’s investigation identified the driver as John M. Peterson, then 65-year old director of management and operations for the Peace Corps in Tanzania.
The killed woman, Ms Issa, was gathering firewood at dawn by the roadside stand where she sold roast cassava and other cooked foods when a small SUV barrelled out of the street and hit her, her sister Hadija Issa said.
Regarding keeping the Peace Corps staff member on salary, a provision in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defence Authorization Act has been endorsed to suspend Foreign Service employees without pay as soon as the final decision regarding their security clearance has been made.
Reports from the US say Congress has passed the legislation and that it was awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature in order to change the bureaucratic system functions to make the system more just.