Maravi

Barotse activists also have human rights which deserve respect, protection

Barotse activists also have human rights which deserve respect, protection
By The Post
Fri 27 May 2011, 04:00 CAT

The human rights of Barotse activists were violated in so many ways. And those who violated their rights and committed crimes against them have been allowed to go scot-free.

Abraham Mwansa, a legal practitioner, is right when he says that it’s unfortunate that the people accused of being responsible for the Mongu fracas are being prosecuted but no action is being taken against the trigger-happy cops who killed some of these totally unarmed and defenceless people.

Truly, as Mwansa correctly observes, “life cannot be taken away arbitrarily. If one’s life is take away, government as a protector of our rights should be concerned; it should take the necessary steps to avoid the vulnerability of citizens”.

It cannot be denied that police unjustifiably used live ammunition on unarmed people in Mongu. And this is why Rupiah Banda later made a directive for the police not to use live ammunition in dealing with crowd control. But after this directive, we have seen the police use live ammunition on unarmed people, simple looters in Mansa.

A man should not lose his life for trying to run away with a fridge looted from a shop. A fridge, a bicycle, a mattress or any other good from a shop is not worth the life of any individual. And to our knowledge, no single police officer has been arrested for the police killings in Mongu, Mansa and Mazabuka. Why?

And to make matters worse, we have a human rights commission that defends police killings and attacks victims of police brutality and violations of human rights.
We know that our Human Rights Commission is not an independent one.

It is a commission run by political appointees of those in power. And obviously, these are elements who have been determined to be user-friendly to those in power.

The violations we are talking about are indirectly committed by those in power. And there is no way their appointees at our Human Rights Commission can go for them, can start attacking those who appointed them and who hold the power to remove them at any time.

If our Human Rights Commission has to function in the interest of protecting human rights, the way people are appointed to and removed from this commission needs to change. And the financing arrangements for the Human Rights Commission also have to change.

It is embarrassing to see an institution that was established to promote and defend human rights defend clear violations of such rights.
There is need to stop impunity, especially where human life is concerned.

Those who kill need to be made to account for their actions. There was no police officer whose life was threatened in Mongu to justify the killing of anyone.

If this was the case, let them be arrested and be prosecuted so that they can defend themselves and their actions before a court of law. If these police officers were indeed innocent and what they did was justifiable as George Kunda had told Parliament, then a fair court of law will accordingly acquit them.

But we know that those who commit crimes on behalf of those in power get away with it. The police officers were taken to Mongu with the full knowledge of Rupiah, George, the Minister of Home Affairs and the Inspector General of Police. All these people knew what the mission of the police in Mongu was because they determined it.

The police officers who went to Mongu were not equipped for crowd control, they were equipped for war and to kill. And we know what happens in war. They confused the control of a riotous crowd with a battlefield where the aim is to destroy, to kill.

In this sense, they are part of the police action in Mongu. This is why this government is defending and justifying the killings in Mongu. Look at the charges they gave those rioters in Mongu! Treason! Trying to remove a lawful government by violent means! These are the charges George and his Director of Public Prosecutions Chalwe Mchenga had framed against those Barotse activists they had arrested, detained and brought to Lusaka and paraded before a magistrates’ court.

Later on, they came to their senses and realised that their charges were senseless, ridiculous and indeed stupid and dropped them. They replaced them with rioting ones and so on and so forth.

From the treason charges, it’s clear that Rupiah’s government treated those Mongu protestors as serious and dangerous enemies of the state.

But surely, how can they be such serious and dangerous enemies of the state when none of them was found with a gun, a bullet or anything of that sort? Dangerous enemies of the state are usually dealt with by law enforcement agencies in the most ruthless of ways. Those Barotse activists were subjected to torture.

Again, this government may deny this and accuse us of exaggerating matters. But what is torture? Everyone has the right to liberty. And no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrests, detentions or exile. This is what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in article 3 and article 9 says. We cannot turn a blind eye to our people’s experience of unfairness and injustice.

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, this is what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says in article 5. Such treatment does not accord with the dignity of the human person. The gravest form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment is torture.

One commits the crime of torture when one deliberately inflicts severe pain or suffering on another person with such a purpose as to obtain information or confession, to punish, to intimidate, to coerce or for any other reason based on discrimination. The pain or suffering constituting torture can be physical or mental.

Look at the way they treated that old man, that 92-year-old former Ngambela of Baroseland, Maxwell Mututwa. That old man was subjected to dehumanising and degrading treatment. Each person has a right to moral integrity. One may not be subjected to humiliating treatment. Mututwa was humiliated.

We know all these crimes are today being defended because those activists threatened their hold on power. The thirst for power is the root cause of all these violations. Therefore, there is need for us to be wary and take a very critical view of the blind thirst for political power.

There is need to demand the prosecution of all the police officers who were involved in the killing of innocent people, unarmed people in Mongu, Mansa and Mazabuka. Human life cannot be taken away arbitrarily and with impunity.

Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT

posted by MrK @ 4:45 PM