Ethno-Net Database: Zambia

Reports on Ethnic Relations / Rapports sur les relations éthniques

The following section is mainly consisted of part, full or summaries of articles taken from newspapers.
La section suivante est essentiellement constituée d'exraits, de la totalité ou de résumés d'articles issues de journaux .

IRIN

The article:"Focus on Supreme Court hearing on election results"

There was good and bad news for Zambian opposition parties this week when they asked the Supreme Court to nullify last December's election, which President Levy Mwanawasa officially won by the narrowest of margins.

The good news was that the Supreme Court was willing to listen to them. The bad news was that with no time limit, any decision by the judges was likely to take a very long time in coming.

That has prompted sections of civil society to ask the government to look beyond the consolidated petition presented by opposition parties to the Supreme Court on Monday. Some NGOs have argued that at the heart of the dispute are what they consider the country's flawed electoral laws, and have called for constitutional reforms.

"The electoral laws clearly have lots of flaws. If the laws were tight and clear-cut, you would not see presidential or parliamentary petitions after every other election because most of the complaints would have been ironed out at an early stage. We recommend electoral law reform," said Alfred Chanda, a law lecturer at the University of Zambia, and chairman of the election monitoring group, the Foundation for a Democratic Process (FODEP).

But there has also been concern that approach could brush under the carpet the current issue of the controversial December election. Rather than looking to the future, any proven irregularity must be dealt with now, to send a clear message that electoral fraud cannot be tolerated, some rights groups have insisted.

"If substantial irregularities are presented as evidence before the Supreme Court, President Mwanawasa's election should be declared illegal and a recount or fresh elections should be conducted. After all, there was only a difference of 34,000 votes between him and his runner-up after trailing for five days," Ngande Mwanajiti, chairperson of Coalition 2001, a consortium of five NGO's that monitored last year's election told IRIN.

"Did the Electoral Commission of Zambia do a good job in ensuring that the election was flawless? The answer to me is no, and if you ask me whether Mwanawasa was popularly elected, my answer would be a categorical no again. There is evidence to support that position," he said.

At the start of the hearing, the president's lawyers argued they either had not been furnished with opposition evidence on time, or had not received instructions from their client on certain issues. The high point for the opposition, however, was when the leader of the European Union (EU) team that monitored the election, Michael Meadowcroft, repeated the EU's earlier findings that the election result did not reflect the view of the majority of Zambians.

Meadowcroft told an attentive full bench, comprising seven Supreme Court judges, that the government, under former president Frederick Chiluba, often denied the opposition access to the state media which instead overtly championed the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) candidate, Mwanawasa.

Repeating the conclusions of the EU's post-election report, he added that District Administrators had openly campaigned for Mwanawasa using state resources. The Electoral Commission also allegedly concentrated voter registration in areas believed to be MMD strongholds, thereby disenfranchising voters believed to be sympathetic to the opposition.

Other international observers to the December poll, such as the Carter Centre, made similar observations. So did domestic poll watchers, Coalition 2001 and FODEP.

Mwanawasa, who on several occasions had publically said he would step down if overwhelming evidence showed he was fraudulently elected, has seemingly begun to take a harder line. He recently announced he would remain in office for his full five-year term, disregarding the fact that the Supreme Court should have the final say after examining the evidence against him.

"I look at the statements as mere bravado," Chanda told IRIN. "As a politician, he needs to give hope to his supporters that everything is fine and that's what he was doing, I think it should be seen in that way."

Mwanajiti, however, was less forgiving. "Those statements should not be taken lightly. He [Mwanawasa] ought to be cited for contempt, so that he can explain how he knows that he will stay in office for a full five year term even when the Supreme Court is the one that makes a final decision," he said.

An anti-corruption campaign by Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has helped transform his image from that of dubious victor of an illegitimate election, to a crusader out to cleanse the country of his predecessor's alleged sleaze.

But human rights groups have begun to voice concern that the investigations are increasingly looking like a witch hunt aimed settling old political scores.

Last week, former intelligence director Xavier Chungu became the latest senior figure to fall foul of the government's "Task Force". He was arrested after an escapade worthy of his profession, in which he allegedly stole a motorbike to make a rendezvous with an aircraft, flown by a South African pilot, hired to whisk him out of the country.

Chungu, who had been arrested three times previously and was out on bail, was jailed by a local magistrate on Monday on the grounds that he could try again to flee to avoid a high-profile corruption trial.

Chungu has been under investigation over the misappropriation of about US $6 million from an intelligence account held at the Zambia National Commercial bank in London under the name of Zamtrop, for which he was the sole signatory.

The government would also like help with other financial scandals. These include undervalued cobalt sales in which Zambia lost $60 million, and a botched military deal which cost a reported $25 million.

Chungu was reportedly a close associate of former president Frederick Chiluba, who had sponsored Mwanawasa as the presidential candidate of the ruling Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) last year, after sections of the party rebelled against Chiluba seeking an unconstitutional third term.

Mwanawasa's December election victory was viewed as flawed by international observers. Amid intense local and international pressure over the conduct of the polls, Mwanawasa, who had been accused by the opposition of being Chiluba's acolyte, began to set his own political agenda and ordered corruption investigations.

The government has made it clear that the ultimate target was Chiluba. In July, Mwanawasa accused his predecessor of abuse of office, but said he would stop any prosecution if Chiluba returned assets he had allegedly stolen. Parliament then lifted Chiluba's immunity, clearing the way for him to stand trial if charges were laid against him. Chiluba has since fought a desperate legal rearguard action.

"The problem for the government is that they might not have enough evidence. They have not been able to catch Chiluba with his hand in the till, so they don't really have a case. So they think that by breaking Chungu, that's the key," one analyst, who asked not to be named, told IRIN.

As the government has increased the pressure on Chiluba's associates, previously supportive human rights groups have begun to question the manner in which the investigations have been carried out. They have pointed to the use of non-bailable offences such as vehicle theft, and search warrants secured from the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) rather than magistrates, as a sign that the inquiry has turned into a dragnet.

Recent raids on the homes of Chiluba and his attorneys by a combined team of DEC officers, police, the Anti-Corruption Commission and the state intelligence service, have reinforced their concern. The search on Chiluba's house yielded little, two licensed firearms and some shredded paper.

"I have no sympathy for thieves and people involved in corruption. But if investigations into allegations of corruption become selective, like now, rather than thorough, I get concerned," said Fred Mutesa, a political analyst with the University of Zambia's Department of Development Studies.

Law Association of Zambia president, Michael Musonda, said the raid on Chiluba's lawyers was illegal. Lawyers had the right to represent a client without being harassed, he said.

Condemnation of the manner in which the searches have been conducted reached a crescendo following Task Force raids on former government spokesman and MMD national secretary Vernon Mwaanga, and opposition leader Ben Mwila, a former minister of defence.

"These searches must be conducted in a civil manner without instilling fear in citizens," Ngande Mwanajiti, executive director of the Inter Africa Network for Human Rights and Development told IRIN. "To us its beginning to look like the task force is on a fishing expedition targeted at the opposition."

"President Mwanawasa must learn from the mistakes Chiluba made. Chiluba harassed NGO's, opposition and journalists. He [Mwanawasa] seems to be leaning towards that and it could be bad for him too. This is supposed to be a democracy and therefore people's rights must be respected," he added.

But DEC Assistant Commissioner Nason Banda has defended the conduct of the Task Force. "We are just doing an honest investigation into the plunder of the national economy over the past 10 years ... We will continue these investigations until we reach a conclusive end," he told IRIN.

According to opposition MP Dipak Patel - one of four people facing a libel suit brought by Chiluba last year after they accused him of being a "thief" - the government's investigations have been into "the people implicated in the scams. You don't see innocent civilians being searched needlessly".

However, Mwanawasa's detractors have alleged that the government's investigations could also be linked to Supreme Court petitions, filed by opposition parties after Mwanawasa's election victory, which are due to be heard on 16 September. The European Union and the Carter Centre both described the December polls as seriously flawed, and critics have suggested that among the evidence that had been removed by the Task Force was "evidence" of vote buying. "Frederick Chiluba has said that one of his biggest regrets was picking Mwanawasa to stand [as MMD electoral candidate]. Chiluba might have evidence of how the election was manipulated, as there is no doubt the election was manipulated," said Mwanajiti.

Former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba has accused his successor, Levy Mwanawasa, of using the police to harass him for no justification after the security men raided Chiluba's home in Lusaka, confiscating documents and hunting guns.

The raid on Chiluba's home was conducted by a task force put together recently by government to pursue persons who either stole money and property from the state or abused their offices to enrich themselves.

Chiluba said he was surprised to see police surround his home Saturday morning to search for illegal drugs.

On their search warrant, which Chiluba refused to read, he was accused of dealing in illicit drugs since January when he left office.

All offences related to drug trafficking allow police to detain suspects indefinitely, under current Zambian laws, without bail.

Presently two of Chiluba's close associates - Xavier Chungu (who was his intelligence chief) and Richard Sakala (who was his media and public relations adviser) - are in jail on charges of stealing motor vehicles which, under another law, does not permit the accused to have bail.

Chiluba himself, ironically, created the laws now being used against him in his pursuit of perceived political opponents.

Though Chiluba refused to open his house to the search party, the police forced the doors open with the help of special tools. In protest, Chiluba walked out of the house and sought refuge in a bar by the side of his swimming pool.

At the end of the five-hour search, police and drug enforcement officers confiscated shredded documents and two hunting guns - a rifle and a shotgun.

The task force includes police, anti-corruption commission and drug enforcement commission investigators, among others, and the raid on Chiluba was connected to suspicion that since leaving office, the former Zambian leader has turned to the sale and trafficking in drugs as his source of revenue.

Chiluba denies this, saying there would be no reason for him to turn to drug trafficking if indeed he had the millions of hard currency he is now accused of having stolen from the state coffers.

In his after-search remarks, Chiluba noted that the charge of his trafficking in illicit drugs was a new accusation since when Mwanawasa laid his "indictment" before parliament, there was no mention of his indulging in drugs at all.

Before the search of the house was conducted, his lawyers, Robert Simeza and John Sangwa, whom he had summoned soon after he was informed that armed policemen had entered his grounds, joined Chiluba.

"I take this as persecution. Why are they saying they are looking for crimes I committed when I was out of office?" he wondered.

Chiluba further complained that plainclothes policemen began deploying around his posh Kabulonga suburb home Friday even before judgement was read out in a high court case in which he challenged parliament's removal of his presidential immunity.

It is inhuman and provocative for government to suspend several allowances for civil servants, said Zambia Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) general secretary Sylvester Tembo yesterday.

Tembo said the decision taken by government was immoral, unrealistic and hinges on gross violation of the collective agreement signed between government and the Civil Servants Union of Zambia (CSUZ) and government.

Public Service Management Division permanent secretary Chresta Kaluba announced in an August 23 circular that the temporal cut down was introduced following a July visit by a team of International Monetary Fund (IMF) experts who revealed a financing gap in the 2002 budget.

Some of the affected allowances include travel benefits, overtime and meal allowances while on special duties, leave travel benefits and payment of travel abroad for workshops which are fully sponsored by government would not be accepted.

Kaluba said IMF advised government that any attempts to close the gap through deficit financing would simply worsen the already unfavourable macro-economic conditions. But Tembo said the collective agreement currently in force does not give government the express mandate to take arbitrary action on bargaining issues without consulting parties concerned.

"It comes as a shock that government found it prudent to suspend allowances for civil servants in order to bridge the financing gap in this year's budget when it could have considered other options such as reducing perks for senior government officials and reducing the size of delegations accompanying the President on both local and foreign trips," he said.

Tembo said civil servants are already grossly underpaid and government has added salt to injury by taking away even the little that supplemented their salaries.

"Government is taking away the very means that civil servants have been surviving on. It is inhuman and provocative," Tembo said. "Government should have first carried out a critical introspection to determine what areas of expenditure had largely contributed to an over run in this year's budget and then finding ways and means of addressing such over-expenditure."

Tembo said ZCTU would support all civil servants in any action they would take. "Government should further desist from taking arbitrary decisions, particularly on issues which require consultations with stakeholders," Tembo said.

"This is the only way government can hope to win the support of such stake holders and in the process avoid potential areas of confrontation."

Kaluba yesterday said government was still holding discussions with civil servants over the matter and the outcome would be announced soon.

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