BUY rubber bullets, don’t be proud of killing ‘innocent’ lives, chief Hamusonde tells government.
Commenting on home affairs ministers Stephen Kampyongo’s statement that world-over police officers are trained and mandated to shoot at, disable dissidents in order to restore order, chief Hamusonde (r) of Bweengwa, west of Monze, said the minister’s comments were an admission of crimes against humanity.
“We need to learn from our brothers in South Africa, they use water cannons and rubber bullets and never live ammunition, the last time they did (in reference to the Marikana massacre) it caused a major uproar that filtered to political leaders and an inquiry was set up. We should also learn from the Hong Kong protests where police even had to display banners that teargas was being deployed,” he said.
“Protests are preventable if and only when the community has trust in police professionalism, but as things now stand, Zambians have lost confidence in the police service. So Kampyongo and the entire PF leadership should not be proud of killing innocent lives during the riots over gassing incidences. Please, purchase rubber bullets and restrict your live ammunition to criminals,” chief Hamusonde said.
He expressed sadness that Kampyongo could proudly give numbers of those innocently killed by the police and not give numbers of those killed for gassing people.
“The International Criminal Court of Justice will feast on Kampyongo’s statement as it is a clear admission of crimes against humanity,” chief Hamusonde said.
He noted that in his chiefdom, police and wildlife officers had at one time used choppers to brutalise a fishing camp instead of engaging the fishermen and women.