ZAWA burns villages in Nyawa chiefdom

ZAWA burns villages in Nyawa chiefdom
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Sunday August 24, 2008 [04:00]

ZAMBIA Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) officers have started evicting villagers in Livingstone’s Sichifulo Game Management Area (GMA) in Nyawa chiefdom by burning villages. Sichifulo GMA crisis management committee chairman Godfrey Muyunda said ZAWA officers were burning huts and beating villagers despite the solemn mood in the country.

Muyunda said ZAWA sent officers on August 20 who burnt several villages while many villagers were beaten by the officers despite assurances from the ZAWA director general that he would convene a meeting.

“We as villagers from Nyawa took our plight to the district commissioner of Kazungula who later took us to the provincial minister. We informed him that we are not refusing to vacate the area but that they must first give us an alternative, but after we realised that ZAWA was not getting back to us we contacted Dr Siawana who promised to convene a meeting. We were only surprised that last Wednesday scouts from ZAWA came in and started to beat villagers and burning houses. People are now sleeping in the bush in the cold. We are not allowed to move our domestic animals in the area so we wonder how we shall fly them out,” he lamented.

Muyunda further said the decision to destroy villages was an act of disrespect to the ongoing state funeral of President Levy Mwanawasa.

“We thought that during this period they would show compassion. We have 8466 people in the area including 13 community schools and 32 churches that have been affected,” Muyunda said.

But ZAWA Livingstone area warden Steven Malungo said the villagers were told to vacate the game management area in June and later the notice was extended to July.

However, Malungo said the villagers defied the order.

“Yes, we have sent officers in the area to forcibly force the villagers out of the area. It is known fact that the area is a protected area and we had given the villagers an ultimatum to vacate the area by 30th June, but they ignored the notice. We later gave them up to the end of July but they still have not complied so we decided to push in our men,” he said.

Malungo said the villagers should not give an excuse of the President’s death because this only happened a few days ago.

“Even the Secretary to the Cabinet said that government operations must continue, next they will give an excuse of the rainy season as a reason not to move out of the area,” said Malungo.