HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE BY UPND WORRIES CHURCH BODY
THE Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) has expressed concern at the increasing abuse of Human Rights in Zambia under the UPND government.
CCZ secretary general Fr. Emmanuel Chikoya has cited the latest abuse of human right by the tourture of the three youths in Luapula Province by military officers.
“…wishes to add its voice to the growing concerns around the torture and mistreatment of the three boys that depicted as insulting the Republican President.
While having zero tolerance of insulting and vulgar language against the elders we strongly condemn the abuse of the suspects by the Zambia Army Officers,” Fr. Chikoya the Presidential appointee to the Human Rights Commission said.
He said matters of maintaining law and order should be left to the Zambia Police.
Fr. Chikoya has also expressed concern with comments attributed to a senior military officer who saw nothing wrong in the conduct of his junio officers tourturing people.
“We note with concern comments attributed to a senior military official indicating tolerance and endorsement of the soldiers’ behaviour, this will lead to a culture of impunity by military personnel in the name of defending the Commander in Chief. Law breakers must without exception be dealt with according to the law of the land,” he said.
Fr. Chikoya has since urged to leave matter of punishing law breakers to the courts as they are the only institutions in the country to prescribe the form of punishment upon convinction.
“We call upon the government not to allow a system where law enforcers become law breakers.According to Article 15 of the Constitution of Zambia,’’ No person shall be subjected to torture, or inhuman or degrading punishment or other like treatment.’’ It is against this background that in agreement statement by the Human Rights Commission that we denounce physical torture as seen in the video by the soldiers.
We further are appalled by a growing pattern in human rights violation various stakeholders such as employers like in the case of the Mkushi farm workers who died a needless death, violation of a maid by Chinese nationals that are not treated with same urgency and zeal by law enforcers leading to such cases dying a not so natural death,” he said.
And Fr. Chikoya has described the UPND trend of reporting political opponents in far flung areas as a way of punishing them as abuse of human rights too.
“The trending pattern of reporting cases in far flung areas and transporting suspect mainly opposition leaders in response to such call outs is a bad practice that must come to an end. All acts of lawfare that is using the law to harass opponents must not be entertained-remember the principle as a man soweth so shall they reap.
All these are but a tip of the iceberg regarding human rights violations in the Country. We call upon the media to meticulously follow up all such cases until justice is obtained,” he said.
“We call upon the judiciary to assist decongest the prisons by meting out non-custodial sentencing such community service and guided counselling for offences of this nature.
We therefore call upon the Zambia Police Service to effectively and professionally undertake their duties without fear or favour,” said Fr. Chikoya.