MBABALA UPND member of parliament Ephraim Belemu has asked the ruling PF to tell the nation what happened with their youths sent for training in Sudan.
Belemu said on May 6, 2012, Zambia was greeted by a rather bizarre and worrying story in the Post Newspaper quoting the then PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba to the effect that the PF had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Sudanese Socialist Party under the leadership of dictator Omar Al Bashir to take Zambian youths to train in Sudan in unspecified disciplines.
He said according to Kabimba, the cooperation was to also work on “external forces.”
Belemu recalled that UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema was even arrested when he raised alarm about that MoU. Hichilema had accused the PF of training a militia group in Sudan.
“To date, the PF has not disclosed the contents of this MoU. Further, as far as the public is concerned, the PF have not renounced or severed this relationship despite citizens raising concerns; or if they have done, can they make it public,” Belemu noted. “At the time of this MoU Al Bashir had already been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for mass murder and gross abuse of human rights. He was behind a self-styled Sudanese outfit called Janjaweed. Janjaweed terrorised Darfur and South Sudan (which is predominantly black and Christian). South Sudan would eventually opt to be a separate state in 2005.”
Belemu, in a statement yesterday, said with the current happenings in the country, “it’s high time citizens got details of this MoU between the PF/Sudanese Socialist party of Al Bashir who is currently in The Hague facing criminal charges against humanity”.
“PF must answer, among others, the following questions: What were the contents of this MoU and can it be made public? How many Zambian youths were trained in Sudan and in what fields/skills of study?” asked Belemu. “How many of these youths are back in Zambia and what jobs are they doing at the moment? Why has the PF been reluctant/refusing/neglecting to renounce or sever this MoU and its relationship with Al Bashir? What was the motivation of sending Zambian youths to train in Sudan when the record of Al Bashar was well known?”