AFRICANEWS
ZambiaHuman Rights abuses continueHuman rightsby Moses Mbulo
On June 26, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace at a human rights seminar held at Nondo Parish,commended the government of president Frederick Chiluba for putting in place mechanisms for arresting human rights abuses, thereby strengthening democracy in the country. The seminar facilitators Messrs Andrew Kalumendo and Fr. Maximo Chanda in a later statement also praised the regime for creating the Permanent Human Rights Commission (PHRC), headed by Justice Lombe Chibesakunda, and the establishment of the police tribunal. The latter is to act as a watch dog onpolice activities. According to the clerics this is enough evidence of the government's seriousness in the issue. But as the clerics were applauding the government police shootings of innocent people are on the rise prompting an outcry from human rights activists who have blamed these on the increasing number ofgunsin the hands of both bandits and police. Though no statistics are available, the recent spate of robberies in the country which have implicated both police and their arms, have thus cast doubts over the government's credibility on cracking down on the offenders. Apart from setting up the police tribunal, nobody has ever been charged in court over these crimes. The only reprimand by the regime has been to disarm more than 200 police reservists in the capital. Thus Zambians are neither not yet secure or out of the woods in regards to the issue. Another issue which has been attributed to be a source ofviolations and has raised concern has been confiscation of property of people suspected to be involved in witchcraft, according to the Catholic Commission for Justice andPeacesecretary,Andrew Njovu. He says this hasbeen used by some traditional leaders especially in the Northern province in alliance with the witch finders to scheme on how to acquire the property illegally. But limited statistics released by the police revealed that such cases of property grabbing and child abuse are not usually reported to the police in the southern province where traditions are very influential. This is according to the Police spokesman Beenwell Chifwembe. He further said that the grand total reported to the police was still lacking a percentage that had not been reported to the newly formed Victim Support Unit(VSU). A total number of 27 murder cases were reported to the police out of which 17 were reported from the Northern province and involved the killing of husbands by their wives. It is also the province which recorded the highest number of property grabbing, assault, rape, incest and infanticide.
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