Amnesty International Report 1997 - Zambia

Journalists were held as prisoners of conscience. The trial of eight members of the political opposition ended in acquittal. There were reports of police shootings of unarmed suspects. At least five people were sentenced to death. No executions were carried out. In January, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a colonial-era law restricting freedom of assembly that required police permits for public meetings, but parliament adopted legislation imposing similar restrictions weeks later. In March, Zambia appeared before the UN Human Rights Committee, which examined Zambia's adherence to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee addressed many of Amnesty International's concerns in its comments. Parliament approved a new Constitution in May that disqualified former President Kenneth Kaunda of the United National Independence Party (UNIP) from contesting presidential elections because his parents were not Zambian and he had already served two terms as President (see Amnesty International Report 1996). Another constitutional clause excluded traditional chiefs from holding office. Two cabinet ministers resigned in protest and western donor countries suspended aid. In September, the government published the findings of a 1995 commission of inquiry which investigated the death of opposition politician Baldwin Nkumbula. It concluded that he died from injuries sustained in an accidental car crash (see Amnesty International Report 1996). In October, the government released the report of the 1993 Human Rights Commission of Inquiry which investigated prison conditions and allegations of human rights violations between 1972 and 1993. It concluded that human rights violations, including torture, by police, security and military personnel had occurred under the previous government and continued "on a significant scale". In response, the government accepted some of the Commission's recommendations, including the creation of a permanent human rights commission, but rejected other important reforms (see Amnesty International Report 1996). President Frederick Chiluba was re-elected in November elections which were boycotted by seven opposition parties. There were allegations of electoral irregularities that favoured the ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy. A week later, two election monitoring groups had their offices searched; their leaders were briefly detained and their assets frozen by the authorities after they accused the government of election rigging. In December, police sought to arrest opposition political leaders who had warned of violence, or a possible military coup, unless fresh elections were held. Journalists at an independent newspaper were held as prisoners of conscience. In February, police detained three editors of an independent daily newspaper, The Post, for almost 48 hours for publishing cabinet ministers' discussions about holding a referendum on the proposed Constitution. A presidential decree banned that day's edition of the newspaper. An appeal to the Supreme Court was made against the charges of printing "classified documents" and against the ban, but no ruling had been made by the end of the year. In March, police again detained two editors of The Post after parliament sentenced them in absentia to indefinite detention for "contempt of parliament". The High Court ordered their release after 24 days, ruling that the procedure followed by parliament was "incompatible with the rule of law". Police arrested eight UNIP officials in June on treason charges in connection with bomb blasts and bomb threats carried out by a hitherto unknown group calling itself the "Black Mamba", which claimed to oppose the adoption of the new Constitution. Two of the officials were also charged with murder after a bomb killed a police explosives expert in June. Two defendants were released in September, and in November the High Court acquitted all eight, criticizing the lack of evidence and the prosecution witnesses' lack of credibility. In June, UNIP members demonstrating outside the courtroom where the eight were on trial were confronted by riot police who fired live bullets into the crowd and beat protesters with clubs. Reports were received of police shooting unarmed suspects. In January, a court sentenced a police officer to 15 months' imprisonment with hard labour for shooting and wounding two nightclub security guards. In August, the family of Mulyokela Yuyi alleged that he was fatally shot by policemen in Kitwe acting in collusion with criminal figures. An inquest into his death was continuing at the end of the year. Court proceedings initiated in several other cases of police shootings of unarmed people in 1994 and 1995 were continuing at the end of the year. At least five people were sentenced to death during the year, including three men convicted of ritual child killings in 1995. At the end of the year at least 114 people awaited execution. No executions were carried out. In February, Amnesty International called on the government to immediately and unconditionally release the two newspaper editors arrested for "contempt of parliament". In March, the organization published a report, Zambia: A human rights review based on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In June, the organization expressed concern about the detention of UNIP officials and wrote to the authorities about prison conditions and the ill health of the defendants. In July, Amnesty International wrote to the authorities inquiring about delays in investigating a fatal police shooting in 1992. No official reply was received. Also in July, Amnesty International wrote to President Chiluba asking about investigations into the 1995 killing of a villager and the razing of a village by some 300 Zambian soldiers. No response had been received from the government by the end of the year.