Chiluba must pay Chongwe the US$6.7m, says Lubinda

Chiluba must pay Chongwe the US$6.7m, says Lubinda
By Chibaula Silwamba
Mon 04 Jan. 2010, 04:01 CAT

FREDERICK Chiluba must pay Rodger Chongwe the US $6.7 million compensation and not government, Patriotic Front (PF) spokesperson Given Lubinda demanded yesterday.

In an interview in Lusaka, Lubinda demanded that a full inquiry be undertaken to ascertain the politicians who instructed the police to shoot at Lusaka lawyer Dr Chongwe and former president Dr Kenneth Kaunda in Kabwe in 1997.

Lubinda said the shooting of Dr Chongwe and Dr Kaunda took place during Chiluba’s presidency, hence he must be held accountable for the incident.

“The taxpayers’ money must be protected from abuse. That therefore, should bring to account the police officer who pulled the trigger at innocent Rodger Chongwe and innocent Dr Kenneth Kaunda.

Secondly, the people who instructed the police officers to shoot must also be brought to book. Thirdly, the politician who celebrated when they heard about the shooting of Dr Rodger Chongwe must also be questioned and if they were at all involved, that politician must be held responsible and pay the compensation to Rodger Chongwe,” Lubinda said.

“Crimes that are committed under the veil of government are still crimes against humanity and such crimes are supposed to face the wrath of the law. Their victims must not be compensated by taxpayers, but them. There are many people that we know were assassinated at the instruction of some politicians. All those will have to have their cases reviewed and compensation awarded. The people who were in power then will have to explain why such people were assassinated and we will demand no less than full internationally accepted forensic investigation into the matter.”

He advised Vice-President George Kunda not to take the compensation of Dr Chongwe lightly.

“In case George Kunda thinks this is a small matter, if he goes ahead to authorise the payment of compensation to Rodger Chongwe let him bear the following facts in mind; the payment of such a colossal amount of money requires approval by Parliament because there is no provision in the budget for 2010 for such an amount in which case George Kunda must ask the Ministry of Finance to present supplementary budget to cover that over K30 billion they want to give Rodger Chongwe,” said Lubinda.

“Since this money is not George Kunda and Rupiah Banda’s pocket money, the circumstances under which Rodger Chongwe was shot at must be made public. George Kunda as Minister of Justice and Vice-President must immediately institute a forensic investigation to the circumstances that led to Rodger Chongwe’s shooting.”