GO, GET THOSE GASSERS!
By Prince BM Kaping’a
As a person that came in close proximity with death…nay, actually stared straight into the face of death during the gassing operation that characterised the nation during the PF administration, I warmly welcome the decision by the police to re-open the investigations into the matter.
This is long overdue! In fact, this should have been one of the priorities immediately UPND formed government.
During the period of gassing, I happened to find myself in Zambezi trying to establish myself in the rosewood timber business before actually being unceremoniously ejected from the district by a selfish chief who thinks only he must benefit from the natural resources the almighty God bequeathed to us.
Some of our chiefs are shamelessly greedy; no wonder they ended up selling their own people into slavery!
Anyway, we were driving from our camp one afternoon when we came across a ‘roadblock’ manned by highly charged villagers, some of them highly inebriated, of course.
These were men, women, and children armed with all manner of weapons – spears and axes, knobkerries, catapults, and pangas! They ordered us out of the vehicle to search for any suspected chemicals.
We delayed a bit as we contemplated where to conceal the mosquito repellant which the villagers might have easily mistaken for the toxic chemicals. They banged the vehicle incessantly and shook it violently, warning that they would burn us alive right in there!
Unsatisfied that there wasn’t anything incriminating discovered in our vehicle, they demanded to physically search us. As fortune would have it though, someone in the group identified one of us.
That’s how we managed to stay alive right to this day. However, we still carry those scars deep in our hearts. Only the truth will bring some sort of closure.
A week earlier, a boy from Zambezi Boarding Secondary School had sneaked out to visit his girlfriend at night in one of the townships.
As he was walking back to school in the wee hours of the day, he encountered a similar gang that demanded to know where he was coming from.
Since he couldn’t communicate in the local language and no one was able to identify him, they immediately resorted to beating him using all sorts of weapons after which they doused his body with kerosene and set him ablaze.
Do you think his family has healed from this? No, sir! No, madam.
There are a lot of questions that still remain unanswered…who was behind gassing? Who financed the operation? Who executed the plan? Was the state involved?
What about the ‘cock and bull’ story fed on us by the Deputy Inspector General of Police at the time, Charity Katanga, about certain individuals turning into cats as though we are that dumb?
What was the objective of this operation? We shall tire not until culprits are brought to book.