Secret arrests exposed

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:10:29 +0000

Secret arrests are going on in Western Province by government security wings where about seven people have so far been arrested without being charged.

Barotse Freedom Movement national chairperson Nyambe Namushi said the victims were being held at unknown points in the province.

Mr Namushi told the Daily Nation that the people being held were mainly activists from the Linyungandambo group.

He said the victims of the secret arrests were from Mongu and Likulu districts and were being detained without any charge.

The BFM chairperson said the families of the victims have not yet been told why government arrested the victims and that so far there had been no action taken.

The victims he said were being arrested in connection with the call by the Ba Lozis to secede.

“It is now two weeks and we don’t know where these people have been taken. No communication has been made to their families and they do not know the whereabouts of their relatives.

“We believe that the arrests were in connection with the issues of the Barotseland separating from the rest of Zambia because all the detainees are activists of the freedom for the Barotseland,” he said.

Mr Namushi said the families for the victims will have to apply for harbeaus corpus by Monday if there would be no official communication from government.

And Western Province Commanding Officer Fanwell Siandenge confirmed the arrests to the Daily Nation saying some of the people were under their custody.

Mr Siandenge said it was true that the people under custody were from Lukulu and Mongu and explained that they were arrested because they were helping police with investigations on sensitive issues.

He said the arrests bordered on national security and would only be released after the investigations were concluded.

“Yes it is true we have made  a number of arrests but I would not be in a position to tell you where we are holding these people.

The detainees are helping us with investigations on issues that border on national security. Let me mention that these people belong to different movements here in western province and not from the Liyungandambo alone. We also have some that don’t belong to any group but we have continued with the investigations,” Siandenge said.

The Commanding officer said so far the detainees were cooperating well with the police officers and that they would be released as soon as the security wing was through with its investigations.