Maravi

Bishop Duffy defends Fr Bwalya

Bishop Duffy defends Fr Bwalya
By Mwala Kalaluka
Tue 16 Mar. 2010, 08:00 CAT

MONGU Diocese Bishop Paul Duffy yesterday defended Change Life Zambia chairperson Fr Frank Bwalya whom he said was just being used as a scapegoat for the government’s growing insecurity.

And Bishop Duffy said President Rupiah Banda’s constant travels out of the country are always expected now. Bishop Duffy said in an interview from Mongu that the people who arrested Fr Bwalya were doing so under rash judgment.

Bishop Duffy wondered under what terms President Rupiah Banda was accusing Fr Bwalya of inciting violence in the country.

He was reacting to President Banda’s expression of shock over what he called Fr Bwalya’s shocking behaviour of inciting violence in his capacity as a clergyman during a service he attended at the Bible Gospel Church in Africa (BIGOCA) in Lusaka’s Matero compound last Sunday.

“I don’t know, what are the terms for his arrest? Why was he arrested? If they say he is inciting violence, what proof do they have that he is inciting violence?” Bishop Duffy asked. “It means they have no proof but they are just presuming that he was inciting violence.”

Bishop Duffy said Fr Bwalya had never been a promoter of violence.
“People don’t know how to respond to him so they think the easiest way is to lock him up,” Bishop Duffy said. “I think that the government is just afraid of Fr Bwalya because they know that they don’t have the support from the Copperbelt and they have to find a scapegoat. It shows the insecurity of the government on the Copperbelt.”

Bishop Duffy said he knew that President Banda would be traveling outside the country as soon as he returned from his state visit to China recently.

“It’s time for him to go somewhere else. We were expecting him to go somewhere but we just did not know where,” said Bishop Duffy on President Banda’s trip to Malawi yesterday.

And Bishop Duffy said some villagers in Lilambo area in Kalabo had fled from their homes to find shelter in a Roman Catholic Church due to floods.

Bishop Duffy said some people from the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) told him that they could not go to the area because it was too remote.

“The Church is doing what they can do and look after the needs of these people,” he said. “I have to check out with each of the parish priests to see how the floods have affected the people.”

Labels: FRANK BWALYA, PAUL DUFFY, POLITICAL VIOLENCE

posted by MrK @ 11:53 AM