Avoid Degradation Of Your Own Citizens’ Human Rights, Foote Counsels Lungu
Recalled US Ambassador to Zambia Daniel Foote has advised President Edgar Lungu to avoid degradation of citizens’ human, economic, and political rights.
Ambassador Foote has left the country for the US.
In his farewell message, Ambassador Foote said he would forever hold close to his heart Zambians’ welcoming, gracious spirit, and their desire for all citizens to enjoy freedoms, protections, opportunities, and rights upheld in their Constitution.
He also hailed Zambians’ resilience and friendship.
Ambassador Foote said to demonstrate America’s continued commitment to the Zambian people, the US would soon announce $3.5 million in food assistance “for your countrymen and women most in need” because of the effects of drought.
He said it had been a distinct honour to serve as the Ambassador of the United States of America to Zambia since 2017.
“While promoting US interests, I believe I stringently held up my pledge to collaborate closely to improve the lives of Zambian citizens, particularly in health, education, refugee-assistance, and peacekeeping,” he said.
“I am disappointed that American efforts to reform the electricity and tourism sectors have been consistently rebuffed, as have proposed financial reforms to help move Zambia toward a credibility-enhancing agreement with the International Monetary Fund.”
Ambassador Foote encouraged the Zambian government to require its own leaders to issue personal financial disclosures, empower anti-corruption institutions to carry out real investigations and prosecutions of corrupt officials at all levels, and to make public the terms of excessively opaque debt arrangements which would affect every Zambian for years to come.
“And to Your Excellency, President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, I implore you and the Zambian government to commit to restore Zambia’s reputation as a strong democracy devoted to serving your exceptional people, and to avoid degradation of your own citizens’ human, economic, and political rights,” said Ambassador Foote.
The Ambassador’s recall follows President Lungu’s declaring his position as not tenable following his criticism of the sentencing of two Kapiri Mposhi men to 15 years for practicing homosexuality.
He also talked about strained US–Zambia relations.
“Let us stop the facade that our governments enjoy ‘warm and cordial’ relations,” he said. “The current government of Zambia wants foreign diplomats to be compliant, with open pocketbooks and closed mouths.”
Ambassador Foote also lamented that the United States provides Zambia with $500 million in aid each year but that he had struggled to schedule meetings with President Lungu.
“Both the American taxpayers, and Zambian citizens, deserve a privileged, two-way partnership, not a one-way donation that works out to $200 million per meeting with the Head of State,” he said.
At a church event in Choma, President Lungu said his government had written to Washington to recall Ambassador Foote as his position had become untenable.
Washington responded by saying it regarded the statement as a declaration of Ambassador Foote persona non grata but called for mutual respect relative to the aid the US government gives Zambia.
An embassy source told The Mast: “It’s not an expulsion per se. What it means is that President Trump has said I can’t be assured of your security anymore…because President Lungu is saying he doesn’t want to work with Foote, it means Foote, what will he be doing here? So Washington is saying if he will not be doing anything here, let’s have him come back home,” explained the source. “It’s recalling him, not expelling him because the Zambian government can no longer assure him of any security or any protocol befitting an Ambassador. He can stay, but as what?”
Source: The Mast