Rights abuses tarnishing Zambia’s image
THE increasing abuse of human rights in our country is tarnishing its international image. Reports being released by reputable global human rights watchdogs, including the United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, have cited a deteriorating human rights situation.
Most of these politically motivated violations involve state actors with the most notorious ones being law enforcement agencies and the courts. Using these institutions the United Party for National Development (UPND) administration has been implementing a serious clampdown on free speech and legitimate dissent.
On flimsy and mostly trumped-up charges, opposition political leaders and critics of President Hakainde Hichilema and his government’s poor governance have been arrested and dragged before politically captured magistrates and judges. A good number of them have been jailed for merely being opponents of Hichilema.
The situation has been getting worse and worse as the country gets nearer to the August general elections. Hichilema’s increasingly repressive rule has become a serious blot on Zambia’s hitherto enviable global reputation as a beacon of democracy.
Since 2021, using his lieutenants Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security Jack Mwiimbu and Inspector General of Police Graphael Musamba, Hichilema has banned opposition political parties from holding public rallies to engage with the people. Meanwhile, UPND has been criss-crossing the country addressing public rallies without any hindrance.
Musamba, either personally or using his puppets at divisional commissioner of police and station officer-in-charge levels, has been hiding behind fictitious “security concerns” to blatantly violate the opposition party leaders’ rights to freedom of association, freedom of movement and freedom of expression.
Even when the parties have followed the provisions of the Public Order Act (POA) by notifying the police in the stipulated time frame, police have denied them permission to hold public meetings. When the opposition parties have tried to go ahead because they have met the requirements of the law, Mwiimbu and Musamba have sent police to violently disperse the meetings. This has even extended to indoors meetings which are not covered by the POA.
Through Jack Mwiimbu, in collusion with Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti, Hichilema hastily passed the obnoxious cyber laws, which he has been using to gag critics through arrests and imprisonments.
We have seen the arrests of Hichilema’s challengers in the August elections gain momentum as the elections draw nearer. Nearly all the potential challengers are facing one or more criminal charges in courts of law as part of the scheme to give Hichilema an easy second term.
Mporokoso Member of Parliament (MP) and Tonse Alliance presidential candidate Brian Mundubile, Socialist Party (SP) president and People’s Pact Movement presidential candidate Dr Fred M’membe, Zambia Must Prosper (ZMP) president Kelvin Fube Bwalya (KBF), Christian Democratic Party (CDP) president Professor Dan Pule, Nkana MP Binwell Mpundu, National Democratic Party (NDC) president Saboil Imboela have all been arrested on trumped-up charges and have been appearing in courts of law. All these have reached the attention of the international community.
We saw politically charged police brutalise an unarmed and non-violent citizen for merely showing solidarity to an opposition leader.
But instead of reflecting seriously on the latest concerns in the HRW report, chief government spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa has pushed back, rubbing the report as untrue.
We are lucky that the civil society has not gone to sleep.
LK Freedom Foundation executive director Linda Kasonde says the Human Rights Watch report is supported by the fact that despite the fact that the Zambian government rightly repealed the laws on criminal defamation in December 2022, critics of government officials are still being arrested and tried for “defaming” the President.
“In June 2024, police blocked a Socialist Party rally in Kitwe despite having initially granted approval. Likewise, in late 2023 and throughout 2024, several Patriotic Front (PF) gatherings were also prevented from taking place, prompting the opposition to challenge these actions in court,” Kasonde said.
UPND must put its hous in order by respecting human rights.
