Civil Society Voices Support For Amnesty Report
Civil society groups have pushed back against attempts by the PF government to discredit a damming report released by leading international human rights organisation Amnesty International earlier this week.
The report entitled ‘Ruling by fear and repression’, accuses President Lungu’s government of facilitating an “increasingly brutal crackdown on human rights” in the last five years. It says this rising authoritarianism has been characterised by attacks on opposition parties, restrictions on freedom of expression and an increase in police and extrajudicial killings.
Amnesty’s Director for East and Southern Africa, Deprose Muchena, observed that, “The human rights situation has drastically deteriorated under Lungu’s presidency.” He added, “What we have seen in Zambia, especially in the past five years, is an increasingly brutal crackdown on human rights characterised by brazen attacks on any form of dissent”.
Among those to defend the report are GEARS Initiative executive director Mcdonald Chipenzi, who described the report as being spot on.
“We want to totally agree with the findings of the Amnesty International’s human rights violation report on Zambia,” he said. “Extra-judicial killings, intimidation, harassment and violence against the perceived anti-government voices and media using ruling party functionaries and State institutions characterised the environment ahead of the August general election.”
Chipenzi cited the killings of Lawrence Banda, Obed Kasongo, Mapenzi Chibulo, Vespers Shimuzhila, Joseph Kaunda, and Nsama Nsama, among others as evidence of the dire situation.
The Patriots for Economic Progress also spoke out in support of the report earlier this week, with the group’s leader Sean Tembo claiming that more Zambians have been arrested for alleged defamation of the President in the past six years than those arrested under all the other five former presidents combined.
Tembo also spoke out about the militarisation of party cadres by the PF.