TONSE ALLIANCE THREATENS TO DRAG UPND TO THE HAGUE
The Tonse Alliance has threatened that it will drag the Hakainde Hichilema administration for human rights violations to the International Criminal Court at the Hague.
Tonse Alliance Spokesperson Sean Tembo has warned that if the UPND administration does not change, the opposition grouping will take the violations to ICU.
Tembo says this is the first in the history of the country that an international body is investigating Zambia on human rights. He has warned that Hichilema risk being the first Zambian to be handed to the Hague if there is no change.
The Tonse Alliance Spokesperson said this in a press address on the visit of the United Nations Human Rights Council Rapporteur to Zambia.
Here is his statement and video of his address:
prosecuted at the International Criminal Court in the Hague? Evidently, that question can only be answered by President Hakainde Hichilema and his administration, depending on how they decide to relate with the Zambian people going forward.
TONSE ALLIANCE STATEMENT ON THE RECENT FACT FINDING MISSION TO ZAMBIA BY THE UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR MS. IRENE KHAN
Liberty House, 1st February 2025
1. The TONSE ALLIANCE would like to take the opportunity of the recent fact-finding mission to Zambia, on freedom of expression, by the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Ms. Irene Khan, from 20th January 2025 to 31st January 2025, to sound a timely warning to President Hakainde Hichilema and his UPND administration, that if they do not cease and desist from further violations of the human rights of the Zambian people, the next international human rights investigation they may face may be from the International Criminal Court Prosecutors.
2. President Hakainde Hichilema and his UPND administration should take the Special Rapporteur’s recent visit as a wake up call. The world is now one big village where evidence of human rights violations is easily shared at the click of a button. In as much as President Hakainde Hichilema and his UPND administration have invested heavily in propaganda by engaging huge numbers of unemployed youths as online warriors to influence online conversations, as well as intimidating or buying out the majority of media houses to peddle the UPND narrative on various matters, the recent decision by the United Nations to send a Special Rapporteur to investigate the Zambian Government on human rights violations, is testimony enough that the heavily funded UPND propaganda machinery is not as effective as President Hakainde Hichilema and his Government may think it is.
3. The TONSE ALLIANCE would further like to take this opportunity to sound a timely warning to individual hooligans within the UPND party, as well as purveyors of selective justice within the Zambia Police Service, who aid and abet these UPND hooligans, that if they do not change their ways soon, they may find themselves sitting in a solitary detention cell at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, where they shall have ample time and opportunity to reflect on the wanton human rights abuses that they perpetrated and perpetuated on innocent Zambians, all because of a difference in political ideology and affiliation.
4. The TONSE ALLIANCE would like to remind President Hakainde Hichilema and his UPND administration that whereas he may succeed to intimidate, gag and bribe the voices of the Zambian people, it is literally impossible to intimidate, gag or bribe the voices of the international community. Therefore, the President should be rest assured that every incident of selective justice, every incident of weaponization of the Police and Judiciary, every incident of state-sponsored terrorism against citizens with dissenting opinions, every incident of Police abduction, every incident of extra-judicial killing of citizens, is well documented and catalogued by the international community, for action at the appropriate time. And that the recent visit by the UN Special Rapporteur to investigate human rights violations by the Zambian Government, is but merely a snippet of possible interdictions by the international community, that await the President and his administration, should they decide not to change their ways.
5. Lastly, the TONSE ALLIANCE would like to put it on record that it is the first time in the 61 years of our existence as a Republic, that an international body such as the United Nations, has visited Zambia for the purpose of investigating human rights violations by the Government, against its own people. President Hakainde Hichilema and his UPND administration should introspect and wonder why there were no human rights violation investigations by any international body in the 27 years of UNIP rule, or in the 20 years of MMD rule, or in the 10 years of PF rule? But there is a United Nations human rights violation investigation within 3 years of UPND rule? Indeed, the verdict against President Hakainde Hichilema and his UPND administration is undeniable. The only question that now remains is whether the President and his UPND administration will only be record holders for having triggered a UN human rights violation investigation, or they shall also claim the record of being the first administration, in the history of Zambia, to be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court in the Hague? Evidently, that question can only be answered by President Hakainde Hichilema and his administration, depending on how they decide to relate with the Zambian people going forward.
///END
ISSUED BY:
SEAN E. TEMBO (SET)
PeP President & TONSE ALLIANCE Spokesperson
LUSAKA, ZAMBIA.