Commission Chairperson Mudford Mwandenga expressed regret that the campaign and post-elections periods were characterized by political violence which resulted into gross violations of human rights and freedoms.
He said there is need to carry out a postmortem of the political violence so as to prevent such acts happening again which lead to human rights violations.
“Now that the elections are behind us the HRC wishes to appeal to His Excellency President Lungu to use his extended mandate to firmly and fairly promote national unity, peace, law and order as well as to promote and protect the rights and freedoms of all persons in Zambia.
“It is regrettable that the campaign and post-elections periods were characterized by political violence which resulted into gross violations of human rights and freedoms. There is need, therefore, to undertake a postmortem of the political violence with a view to prevent such acts of human rights violations and criminality from recurring in future elections. In this regard, the HRC welcomes the pronouncement by His Excellency, Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu, to set up a Commission of Inquiry on political violence during the just ended general elections,” he said.
He said the Commission is hopeful that the Commission of Inquiry will take the form of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission which should cover the pre-election, election and post-election periods so as to establish the root causes of the violence as well as recommend on how to prevent similar human rights violations in future.
“The HRC hopes that the Commission of Inquiry will take the form of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and it should cover the pre-election, election and post elections periods in order to establish the root causes of violence and come up with recommendations on how to prevent similar human rights violations happening again. In this regard and in keeping with its statutory mandate the HRC is ready and willing to provide technical support towards ensuring that the intended Commission of Inquiry meets the UN Standard Principles and Guidelines on the Establishment and Operations of Commissions of Inquiries, Investigative or Fact-Finding Bodies on human rights violations.
“The HRC is confident that President Lungu will continue to effectively exercise his executive authority as enshrined under Article 91 (3) of the Zambian Constitution (Amendment) Act No. 2 of 2016, to among other measures, ensure that the diversity in languages and political opinions of the different communities of Zambia are respected as a matter of human rights,” he said.
He added “The HRC recognizes that the Office of the President is critical for any country to facilitate respect and protect human rights and freedoms of citizens and the HRC will support any measures aimed at establishing facts and finding amicable solutions to continued political violence and violation of human rights.
“Lastly, the HRC has been deeply concerned at the continued political reprisals that have been taking place in some selected private and public places such as Markets Bus Stations, business premises and homes. The injuring, disfiguring or maiming of individuals and destruction of their properties on account of their divergent or dissenting political opinions should never be tolerated as part of political competition in multi-party democracy such as Zambia.”
The HRC should by now know that Lungu thrives on and promotes chaos, violence and tribal divisions.
Ba Wantanshi – Fimo-fimo muleibwelamo. President Lungu started a long time ago preaching peace but your idol was preaching Armageddon and promising that he would not accept election results. If you are analytical, you should have noticed that PF cadres started behaving towards elections whilst your cadres intensified violent activities.
@Wantanshi.
You couldn’t have put it better. ECL thinks the only way he can win support is by causing hatred among tribes. He preaches peace during public forums but allows violence by PF cadres. He has allowed his friends in the PF to insult Southerners, Westerners and North-westerners. These people are now being intensely ridiculed and treated like 2nd class citizens in their own country. ECL even talks about and makes fun of Dundumwezi as if he even knows the place. Believe me, I’ve been to Dundumwezi and if you go there, you would understand (unless you’re blind and stupid) why ECL and PF even MMD and UNIP don’t deserve a single vote from there. In case you’re wondering, I am actually a Northerner.
Expecting Chakolwa to go for peace and unity is delusionary. At his inauguration he was already planning to go and mock the bakachema in Dundumwezi to show them who is President now! Lungu is an ageing school yard bully who eats other people’s lunch for fun. Expect Lungu to be the richest Zambian by 2021 and all the time the poor slum dwellers will be singing his humility while his Swiss accounts fatten up.
@ Wantanshi, you are very right.
HRC you were quite during the election campaigns because you wanted Jameson Vodka Chakolwa to be in power.People died and you were quite.HRC is full of criminals hiding in the name of the commission
Others will also curse yo leader for stealing Lungus’s votes in Dundumwezi. They will also curse the day he was born; curse the womb that carried him, also curse the breast that fed him with milk. Wish his stolen term to continue leading the lost party the most difficult since he was born. This will be his most hectic and tarburant life since he was born; his family will be cursed as well, including all those that support him including you.
Let us all just remember that Zambia as a country on the Continent of Africa is way bigger than all of us… If you cannot put your political differences aside and work with each other or love one another for your self, then please do it for your children and the generations to come.. Those organisation involved in peace making please work together.. As this task, is not a one man show..
Wonders never cease!!Appointing a commission of inquiry when the sources of those atrocities are very well known. I see the same things happening in future until there’s a change of leadership.Why do we like wasting time and money in this country instead of focusing on more productive issues? We want to hear strategies for creating those 500,000 jobs
The call to set a commission of inquiry by president Lungu is a good idea but i got disappointed by him the moment he indicated the words “post election violence”. this defeated the whole purpose. To me the president is targeting Namwala saga in the whole thing. This isn’t the way to go Mr. President. You are a president for all Zambians and not for PF. Now that you have your own mandate, please do the right thing by looking at the problem holistically. what is wrong with u politicians? why does HH only see violence when his supporters are attacked? why does President Lungu only see violence when his supporters are attacked? Violence is violence regardless of who is perpetrating it. if the commission will be used to target only one incidence of violence leaving out the genesis of…