While addressing a political rally in July, 2018, Republican President Edgar Chagwa Lungu said “there is no position in politics which is worth shedding blood for.” This has been a consistent message from the Republican President, especially as Zambia head to the 2021 General Elections.
The hearts of most peace-loving Zambians will remain heavy after the happenings of yesterday when two people were shot dead in unknown circumstances around Cabinet Office when a commotion ensued between unruly cadres of United Party for National Development (UPND) and the Zambia Police Service.
One of them is the State Prosecutor from the National Prosecution Authority while nothing much is known about the second victim.
A few days ago, the Zambia Police Service and the Minister of Home Affairs, appealed to the conscience of the UPND leaders not to bring along their supporters, commonly referred to as cadres, when their leader Hakainde Hichilema was to appear at the Zambia Police Service headquarters for an interview in a matter which in which the Economic Equity Party leader Chilufya Tayali, reported Mr. Hichilema for various alleged offences.
While many politicians will be shedding crocodile tears over the death of innocent citizens and members of the diplomatic service have already started issuing statements on the deaths that could have been avoidable.
As a matter of fact, none among these entities, especially diplomats whose countries have maimed tens of thousands of Palestinians, Iraqis has a fair understanding what the families to those deceased Zambians are going through.
For diplomats, the deaths are nothing more than an opportunity for expressing shock or diplomatic rhetoric in the name of citizens’ constitutional rights while for politicians, this is a political campaign issue.
People have been killed like chickens in Palestine, Syria and the rest of the Arab world, and none of these diplomats have taken any responsibility at all. Only British and Americans lives matter.
The actual people feeling the pain of these tragic losses Zambia suffered yesterday are the children and families to the deceased who saw their loved ones leave home only to receive the news later their loved ones are no more.
For our part, we need to say this loud and clear: the mysterious assassinations of innocent citizens which happened this morning appear to have been carefully premeditated by those who contributed to the deaths.
We begin by taking note of the insistence by UPND leaders to accompany Mr Hichilema to his police interview.
These UPND leaders knew that their supporters, who have the shameful record of disrespecting our courts and actually disrupting court proceedings, would do their utmost to force the police to use force. As we saw, the UPND leaders had their intended results, sacrificing a few innocent souls in whatever manner possible.
If these diplomats were honest with themselves, they would have advised Mr Hichilema to avoid going to the police in the company of his cadres – unruly or otherwise, and the tragic losses of life would have been avoided.
These diplomatic statements will not reverse this heartbreaking history, but their words of restraint to Mr. Hichilema, would have prevented it. These diplomats are the only people that Mr. Hichilema listens to, for well-known reasons.
What has happened today appears to have been well-calculated move to achieve the result which the UPND have gotten: the deaths of two innocent Zambians.
Mr Hichilema is not the first person to be summoned by the Police, but no politician such as Mr. Kambwili, the late Mr. Sata or many before them, were ready to sacrifice the souls of their members, as does Mr Hichilema.
We wish Mr. Hichilema was like Kambwili who faces his alleged misdeeds alone and does not sacrifice other people’s souls for his own sake. But that is expecting too much of Mr Hichilema.
We in fact doubt that the two victims were shot by the Police. We think those killings of innocent citizens were premeditated for political reasons.
If the police had intended to cause the death of unruly UPND members, they knew exactly where those members were gathered. They would have shot straight into them. In this case, none of the cadres were targeted.
Surely, who killed those two victims in such a targeted manner? The killings are very highly suspicious to us and they need to be investigated thoroughly.
We are given to understand that both victims died of shots to the head. We cannot help but wonder how a man inside a restaurant, would have been shot in the head just like the other unfortunate victim on Independence Avenue.
These killings seem to have been well calculated and targeted and call for a deep and detailed investigation. In the meantime, our hearts are with the families of the deceased persons who have lost their loved ones.
Author Unknown
