Maravi

Rupiah's govt caused riot, killings - Mulonda

Rupiah's govt caused riot, killings - Mulonda
By Mwala Kalaluka in Mongu
Sat 29 Oct. 2011, 14:00 CAT

THE Commission of Inquiry into January's Mongu fracas says President Michael Sata pardoned convicted Barotse activists because only free people can negotiate on any political issue like the Barotseland Agreement.

During the presentation of evidence to the Rodger Chongwe-chaired commission on Thursday, a 55-year-old Mongu resident, Frank Mulonda, asked what game successive governments and the current one were playing over the Barotseland Agreement issue.

In his submission, Mulonda said when the MMD came into power after 1991, the people had hope that the issue would be settled under the multi-party democratic dispensation.

"During the reign of Bwezani Rupiah Banda, who has just left...we saw the worst in Barotseland where blood was shed on the 14th of January 2011 over the same Barotseland Agreement," said Mulonda amid applause.

He said former president Banda's government caused the killings and the riot in Mongu because the people were not fighting despite the state sending armed forces to confront them.

Mulonda said the conduct of the security wings on the day in question was unprofessional and inhuman in that they opted to use live ammunition on unarmed civilians.

"We must also pursue the issue of who authorised the use of live ammunition by the security wings. Was it the Commanding Officer of Western Province? Was it the Inspector General of Police? Was it the Minister of Home Affairs at the time, Mr Mkhondo Lungu, or was it the then president Rupiah Bwezani Banda?" Mulonda asked.

He said the person who gave the order to shoot should be brought before the Commission of Inquiry.

Mulonda also said the detention of the Barotse accused in Mumbwa and Lusaka where the alleged offence was not committed from was unnecessary and unreasonable.

"It meant that the state punished the whole families of all the people who were detained," Mulonda said.

He said not only those who were detained but even those injured, killed and whose properties were damaged should be compensated.

"Barotseland is the least developed province in the whole country yet after independence it was number four," Mulonda said. "Successive governments have failed to address these issues yet the people of Barotseland have been considering themselves part and parcel of the Zambian people."

Mulonda asked what had changed today that President Sata who was in the Chiluba government, which described the Barotseland Agreement as stale, had said during his campaigns that he wanted to recognise it.

In responding to Mulonda, Chongwe said the people should have faith in President Sata because it was the first time he was becoming President despite serving in previous governments.

"This is why our new President in order to pave way for the appointment of this Commission he took the step to release from jail all those that had been convicted arising from the incident of the 14th of January," Chongwe said. "He went on to wipe out the sentences so that none of those people who were actually convicted will have a previous record because the President pardoned them."

Chongwe said President Sata did this on the basis that only free people could sit down and discuss important national matters.

"People were killed in this place, tensions rose, there was frustration and that frustration continues and neither you nor the government wishes to do nothing because doing nothing might bring back a repeat of that dark day," Chongwe said. "What we are having today is the process of full reconciliation to a conflict which has festered since 1964, acknowledging that along the way mistakes have been made, injustices have been perpetrated, lies have been told."

He said President Sata wants the above issue to be an issue of the past.

"So let us give him an opportunity," said Chongwe. "We Commission of Inquiry are merely an instrument for the implementation of your desires and the desires of the new government."

Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, MONGU, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 9:00 PM