Protest at invasion and intimidation by Zambian Police at conference

COMMUNIQUE BY PARTICIPANTS OF THE AFRICAN WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON THE ZAMBIAN POLICE ACT OF INVASION AND INTIMIDATION AT THIS CONFERENCE ORGANIZED BY THE AFRICAN WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATION NETWORK (FEMNET)

As participants of the an international conference on “Women’s Leadership Conference” held in Lusaka at the Inter-Continental Hotel, 7-9 June 2010, we hereby register our dismay and anger at the unprofessional and unacceptable behaviour of the Second in Command of the Zambian Police for Lusaka Province (Mr. Chushi) for harassing and embarrassing our co-participant, Ms Jean Kapata, in the dining room at lunch hour on 8 June, on the pretext that she was allegedly holding an ‘illegal meeting’ of the Patriotic Front (PF) at the same hotel. The Lusaka Police Commanding Officer (Mr. Ng’uni) was contacted and he confirmed that the Police had acted on a rumour that he had received that Honourable Kapata was holding an ‘illegal’ PF meeting at the Lusaka Inter-Continental Hotel and that the Police had gone to the hotel to confirm the rumour by talking to her.

Quite apart from the questionable nature of the Police explanation, before invading into the meeting the Police should have been able to establish that i) that Hon. Kapata was one of the Zambian participants at a lawful gathering comprising women civil society activists and politicians drawn from ten African countries including Zambia; ii) that the previous day the Acting Minister of Gender and Development Brigadier Brian Chituwo had officially opened the conference with words of encouragement to organizers for embarking on a worthy issue concerning the advancement of women in the leadership arena. At the time of the police intrusion, the conference room and the adjoining corridor were swarming with media personnel who could have provided the police full and accurate information on the nature of the meeting being attended by Hon. Kapata. This Conference was also supported by two local organizations namely: the Zambia Non-Governmental Organizations Coordinating Council (NGOCC), which is an umbrella body of women’s organizations and the Zambia Association for Research and Development (ZARD), a research body on gender and women’s issues. The main objective of the Conference is to explore ways in which women of the region can prepare themselves on how to increase women’s participation in the upcoming elections up to 2015.

In this public display, for all international visitors to see, the Zambian Police starkly brought into question whether the government of Zambia has any respect for an individual’s fundamental rights to freedom of movement, freedom of association and freedom of expression as enshrined in the Zambian Constitution and the various international and regional human rights instruments reaffirming these rights which the State has acceded to.

The Police action represents an attack on all the progress that Zambian women have made in their participation in the affairs of the country at all levels. In addition, the action is a violation of the above mentioned fundamental human rights and an attempt to suffocate women’s voices by intimidating women in the political opposition and civil society organizations. Only a few months ago the Lusaka Chairperson of Youths of the ruling party (Movement for Multiparty Democracy – MMD) stormed an independent television station (MUVI TV) and announced with impunity the intention to ‘gang rape’ Ms Edith Nawakwi, a woman president of FDD (Forum for Democracy & Development) for speaking out as an opposition party leader. It took public outrage for the Police to bring-in for question the intimidators of this ‘crime against humanity’ (as it is classified by United Nations). Up to date the culprits have not been arrested.

This blatant attack on our legitimate regional women’s leadership conference is outrageously embarrassing for Zambia, and portrays Zambia as resembling a dictatorship with government monitoring women’s political activities aimed at silencing the thought provoking voices of women.

This type of Police behaviour is unacceptable and we demand a public apology from the Inspector General of Police and the Minister of Home Affairs for the breach of peace of the participants, both local and foreign, at this international conference.

NB: THIS COMMUNIQUE WAS SIGNED ON 9TH JUNE 2010 BY CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS. The conference was attended by members of parliament and civil society activists from tencountries: Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia.

For any further information concerning the conference please contact any of the undersigned.

Sara Longwe Engwase Mwale Pezo Mateo-Phiri
Immediate Past Chairperson Executive Director Executive Director
FEMNET NGOCC ZARD
CELL: +260 977 786915 TEL +260 211 224727 TEL: +260 211 224536
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