Amnesty International Report 1994 - Zambia

At least 27 government opponents were detained without charge or trial for up to two months. They were prisoners of conscience. One was later tried and sentenced to a prison term. There were reports of prisoners being ill-treated; at least two prisoners died after reportedly being beaten in custody. Suspected criminals were shot dead in circumstances suggesting they had been extrajudicially executed. At least three prisoners were sentenced to death, but there were no reports of executions. In early March President Frederick Chiluba declared a state of emergency on the grounds that a document outlining plans to overthrow the government had been found at the headquarters of the opposition United National Independence Party (UNIP). UNIP sources said that the document, entitled Zero Option, was not party policy and contained policy options which had been rejected. With the declaration of a state of emergency, the Preservation of Public Security Regulations came into effect: they provide for indefinite detention without charge or trial. The emergency, and the powers of administrative detention it introduced, were lifted in May. A Commission on Human Rights was established in May to investigate allegations of human rights abuses under both the previous and current governments. At least 27 senior members of UNIP were detained without charge or trial in the days after the imposition of the state of emergency. Several were released within a few days, but at the end of March at least 15, all prisoners of conscience, remained in detention. Seven of them were freed in late April, including Rabbison Chongo and Rupiah Banda, who had both been ministers in the UNIP government defeated in multi-party elections in 1991. In late May detention orders against the remaining eight were revoked shortly before the state of emergency was lifted. However, they were immediately rearrested and charged with various political offences before being released on bail. Three were charged with offences related to sedition and brought to trial; one, Bweendo Mulengela, a newspaper editor, was sentenced in October to nine months' imprisonment for possession of seditious material, a charge that arose from possession of the Zero Option document. He was granted bail pending an appeal which had not been heard by the end of the year. The trial of Henry Kamima, the former director of intelligence, and another former official opened in October but had not concluded by the end of the year. The two men were charged with retaining classified documents without authority. In November the trial of three other former detainees charged with a treason-related offence began, but it had not concluded by the end of the year. One of the three was Major Wezi Kaunda, chair of the UNIP committee on security and son of Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia's President until 1991. There were persistent reports of police ill-treatment of prisoners. At least two of the UNIP detainees alleged they were physically ill-treated. Cuthbert Nguni, a member of parliament, claimed that he was blindfolded, stripped naked and interrogated without a break for 39 hours during which he was hit on the back and made to do physical exercises. Henry Kamima alleged that he was tied to a chair and kicked on the shins while under interrogation. The allegations were investigated by the Commission on Human Rights, but it had not reported its findings by year-end. At least two prisoners suspected of criminal offences died after they were reportedly beaten in police custody. Smart Siame and Matthew Mhango both died in January while in the custody of police in Lusaka. In each of the cases, which were unrelated, police accounts of their deaths differed from those of witnesses and family members. Inquests into the deaths had not been held by the end of the year. In general there were considerable delays in the opening of inquests; an inquest into the death of Dickson Zulu, who died after being beaten in police custody in August 1992, finally opened in April. Police shot dead at least 13 criminal suspects, in some cases in circumstances which suggested they may have been extrajudicially executed. In at least two incidents suspected criminals were shot dead, according to the police, after they tried to escape while leading police officers to hidden stolen goods. In February the Minister of Home Affairs reaffirmed comments he had made in August 1992 making clear he was authorizing police to "shoot to kill" armed robbers (see Amnesty International Report 1993). At least three prisoners were sentenced to death for murder and aggravated robbery. The total number of prisoners facing the death sentence remained at over 200. There were no reports of any sentences being carried out or commuted. After the imposition of the state of emergency, Amnesty International called for the release of all those in detention considered to be prisoners of conscience, and expressed its opposition to administrative detention procedures which provided for indefinite detention without charge or trial. The organization also called for all death sentences to be commuted.