Curb police brutality

Tue, 04 Jul 2017 10:00:10 +0000

BARELY a week after the Zambia Law Development Commission (ZLDC) and the Human Rights Commission (HRC) jointly presented a report on criminalisation of torture in Zambia and the Anti-torture draft bill to Government, Zambia Police Service is the first to be found wanting.

This time round, it is a fusion of extortion, harassment, false imprisonment and torture of innocent Nyumba Yanga residents.

Reports of some police officers harassing and detaining innocent residents while demanding money from them have become commonplace, and it is the reluctance to decisively and firmly deal with such vices that has made the Police Service continue to harbour bad eggs, thereby allow unscrupulous officers perpetrate unlawful acts in society.

The inhuman and degrading treatment to which three Nyumba Yunga residents were subjected to by police officers from the local police post in the pretext of conducting night patrols in the area does not only make sad reading but also exposes how overzealous and unprofessional officers continue to dent the image of the Service with impunity.

On Tuesday last week around 20:40 hours, police officers forcefully dragged three local residents from the car they had parked by the gate to their house for no apparent reason. When did sitting in your own car parked by the gate become a crime in Zambia?

The victims, who did not know what offence they had committed, were later taken to the police post where they were locked up in the cells because they could not pay the K750 the officers demanded. Why did the police officers refuse to cite the exact offence committed if indeed they had contravened the law?

What is more disturbing is that these uncivil, corrupt Nyumba Yanga police officers had the audacity to detain and torture these victims of injustice for merely seeking an explanation. What kind of law are Nyumba Yanga police officers enforcing?

According to Article 15 of the Republican Constitution, “A person shall not be subjected to torture, or to inhuman or degrading punishment or other like treatment.” Do police officers not know that torturing an individual under detention is a violation of one’s constitutional rights?

Arising from this constitutional provision, it can be argued that there is no law in Zambia which authorises the police officers to beat up members of the public whom they detain as suspects.

Were the police officers in order to pour cold water on Agnes Lombe and Yvonne Kalenga, let alone detonate a tear gas canister in the holding cell? Which provision of the Penal Code did they contravene?

It is shameful that in spite of negative reports from a parliamentary committee on National Security and Foreign Affairs and the Anti-Corruption Commission labelling the Zambia Police Service as the most corrupt institution, the police officers appear allergic to change this bad institutional image.

What else could have motivated the Nyumba Yanga police officers to fleece Moses Tembo of the little money he had in his bank account if not corruption? If anyone doubts police corruption, think again.

A matter such as this one must be the easiest to probe in that the police post must have records of which police officers were on duty on the material night.

If anything, victims are able to identify which unscrupulous police officers corruptly got their money and tortured them on the eventful night. Does the police command need months or years to conclude such a probe?

We urge Woodlands Police Station to conduct investigations surrounding this serious matter expeditiously and professionally because shielding the culprits neither advances the cause of justice nor does it reflect the mandate the Police Service is entrusted to carried out.