By Dr. Nevers Sekwila Mumba
MMD Leader and Fmr Vice President of Zambia
March 5th 2022
Voting in favour of the resolution was the right thing to do, and is consistent with the principles of Zambia’s foreign policy which we first formally codified in 1969.
The action by Russia has breached some of these principles, including:
i) the inviolability of national borders;
ii) the respect for sovereignty & territorial integrity of States;
iii) the non use of force, or threat of force, in the settlement of disputes;
iv) the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force;
v) non-support for unilateral declaration of independence or illegal cessation of territory; amongst others.
These principles are enshrined in the UN Charter & the Constitutive Act of the African Union.
The UN has established mechanisms for addressing disputes, including that of security concerns, which Russia could have utilized, rather than to take unilateral direct action, as it did.
It’s only by standing on principle, and not on whether one is friend or foe, that we can justify the positions we should take during such votes. This is what gives us the moral high ground to support the Palestinians or Western Sahara, or the Malvinas (Falklands), or Chagos (recently), etc.
There are many missteps done by Ukraine & Western countries, and plenty of history that may give sympathy to Russia’s grievances, but not to the point of justifying the invasion. Indeed, other big countries have done similar things, to different degrees. All of these are unacceptable.
In our view, war is unacceptable. It should be made a crime against humanity.
The argument by some that Zambia has changed her foreign policy by this vote is misplaced. It is important to note that the policy of non aligned status existed during the time of the cold war. It is not our permanent foreign policy. What is permanent is our policy of promoting peace both at home and abroad. Zambia is globally known as the country of peace, and any time we are presented with a choice between peace and war, we shall always choose peace. Recently at the UN, the opportunity to choose between peace and war presented itself and we voted for peace. This is who we are and this is our foreign policy.
This decision however does not imply that we have turned our backs against our all weather friend, Russia. We have only rejected the proposition of war. We have voted against war and not Russia.
I am sure Russia would vote the same way if Zambia unilaterally invaded Malawi without exhausting all the available mechanisms at our disposal. We have opportunities to resolve such conflicts at Bilateral, Regional(SADC), Continental(AU) and finally at International levels (UN).
The UN GeneralAssembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution demanding that Russia immediately end its military operations in Ukraine. Zambia voted for this resolution along with other 140 nations.
-Dr. Nevers Mumba