Kaingu welcomes Sata's dialogue approach on Barotse Agreement

Kaingu welcomes Sata's dialogue approach on Barotse Agreement
By Chibaula Silwamba
Tue 03 Jan. 2012, 13:58 CAT

MICHAEL Kaingu says only dialogue and confrontation will work in resolving the Barotseland Agreement impasse as emphasised by President Michael Sata.

Commenting on President Sata's call for dialogue with people of Western Province that want the restoration of the Barotseland Agreement 1964, Kaingu, an opposition MMD Mwandi member of parliament in Western Province, urged his kinfolks in the region to desist from violent means of addressing the problem but dialogue with the government.

At the time he was minister of community development in the immediate past MMD government, Kaingu courted trouble from within the government structures and was on the brink of losing his ministerial post when he, in his personal capacity, travelled to Western Province to engage the people to embrace dialogue and not violence on the Barotseland Agreement, barely days after the deadly January 14 fracas.

"I am so grateful that President Sata has made the statement that the only thing that can resolve the Barotseland Agreement problem is dialogue. That is what I was saying when I was in Western Province. His statement is just in support of what I was telling the people of Western Province that time when I was in government," Kaingu said.

"Confrontation can't work; there is no way just a section of people in Western Province can ever think they can take on the army, the air force and the police. It will not work. For me, I agree that the Barotseland Agreement exists but not in the manner that some people were taking it, where they wanted to have confrontation with the government."

He said it was wrong for some people in the region to assume that they could challenge the government using violence.

Kaingu said people of Western Province were not advocating separation from Zambia but development of their area.

"Some people of Western Province cannot believe that they can get knobkerries, stones and spears in this world today and think that they can take on the government," Kaingu said.

"It's not correct that the people of Western Province want to secede from Zambia. The problem of Western Province is abject poverty. Currently, Western Province is the poorest in Zambia while it is endowed with natural resources."

He said people of Western Province were demanding employment creation, markets for their farm produce and resources to sustain themselves.

Kaingu said there was need to rejuvenate the economy of the province by revamping the cultivation of cashew nuts, rice and restocking of fish and cattle, and combating animal diseases.

He said the high poverty levels were the main cause of tension in Western Province.

"In the past, the government administration that was in Western Province didn't give people an opportunity to express themselves; they choked the people that wanted to express themselves over how uncomfortable they were with the poverty levels in the province," said Kaingu, citing it as the other reason that led to the deadly protests.

"At the same time, the people didn't seem to have the opportunity to discuss with the Barotse Royal Establishment. People didn't have the forum to express themselves."

Hundreds of people were arrested and prosecuted over the January 14, 2011 riots that left at least two dead and several others injured.

Soon after his election, President Sata pardoned 28 of the jailed Barotseland Agreement activists.

However, some disgruntled people in the region have of late been attempting to resuscitate their plans to secede.

President Sata on Wednesday met a 12-man group of representatives of Linyungandambo Barotse Freedom Movement (BFM) and the Movement for the Restoration of Barotseland at State House.

"Dialogue will save the country and the people wherever you are but if you want confrontation, you are in a weaker position than government is. God created blood, which we should not spill for nothing. And we are not going to spill any blood for nothing," President Sata said.