Turkey- Abductions mar Zambian election caign
Date
2/15/2016 6:45:50 PM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Zambia’s human rights watchdog on Monday condemned the abduction of journalists and officials by suspected opposition supporters.
Government officials members of the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and journalists from the state Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) were seized by suspected followers of the United Party for National Development (UPND) in a violent attack on Saturday evening.
“We condemn in strongest terms the acts of violence in Namwala district where government officials and journalists were abducted by suspected UPND cadres” Commission Director Florence Chibesha told Anadolu Agency.
“This was criminal and we demand that the people behind it are brought to book immediately.”
A convoy of government vehicles leaving President Edgar Lungu’s rally in Namwala in Zambia’s UPND-supporting Southern province was attacked by suspected UPND cadres armed with spears machetes and stones Inspector General of Police Kakoma Kanganja said in a statement released Sunday evening.
The captives were released within hours following a “spirited search” of the area he added.
Zambia where previous elections have been marred by violence faces presidential parliamentary and local elections in August. According to the Human Right Commission 20 people have been killed in political violence in Zambia since 2011. Lusaka’s High Court recently sentenced five PF supporters to death after they were convicted of the 2014 murder of an opposition supporter.
Lungu warned that political violence had the “potential to degenerate into civil war.”
However UPND President Hakainde Hichilema claimed the attacks were an attempt to ban the party.
“What happened in Namwala is a ploy by the ruling PF to create an opportunity for the government to bar UPND from taking part in the forthcoming general elections” he told a news conference in Lusaka on Monday.
“As a party we are concerned the abduction itself could have been faked by members of the ruling PF in conjunction with the police to tarnish the image of the UPND… ahead of the forthcoming general election.”
The Southern Africa Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes an NGO promoting human rights peace and good governance blamed the violence on the state.
“The police especially are blamed for the reported violence not only in Namwala but also elsewhere in the country where it has been reported” Executive Director Boniface Chembe told Anadolu Agency. “Being an election year it is inciting violence from the police to grant one political party the right to campaign and deny others.”
By Francis Maingaila
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