Bishops add their weight to constitutional debate

Zambia's influential Catholic bishops on Wednesday warned President Levy Mwanawasa of the danger of blocking demands for a popular assembly to rewrite the country's constitution. In a pastoral letter the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), which in the past has intervened at critical stages in the country's history, called on Mwanawasa to immediately enact a law creating a constituent assembly. The letter, reprinted as a full-page announcement in local papers, said, "To stall this process now would be dangerous for the nation." Bowing to civil society pressure, the government created a Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) in 2003, but this month rejected its recommendations and told the commissioners to try again. The opposition has backed many of the CRC's suggestions, including the dilution of presidential powers and the scrapping of the first-past-the-post electoral system, and want a constitutional assembly to agree to the changes and have the law in place before elections in 2006. The government has rejected the timeframe as unfeasible, and the assembly as too expensive. "There is no price too high to pay so that we may continue to live in peace in Zambia. Let the process of setting up a new constitution begin, because this is the desire of the people of Zambia," said the pastoral letter, signed by the Archbishop of Lusaka and ZEC president, Reverend Telesphore-George Mpundu. ZEC is part of the Oasis Forum, an umbrella organisation of NGOs that has been at the forefront of pressure on the government to adopt a constituent assembly. On 1 November several thousand Zambians marched on parliament demanding a new constitution, with similar demonstrations taking place in other parts of the country. In response to the letter, government spokesman George Chulumanda said, "The government is still studying the gravity of the statements made by the eminent Catholic bishops and we will issue a statement at an appropriate time." Zambia's bishops played a crucial role in ending the 27-year single-party rule of Kenneth Kaunda, and dashed successor Frederick Chiluba's hopes of tweaking the constitution to stand for a third term. Law Association of Zambia president William Mweemba told IRIN, "If I was the president, I would listen very carefully and react favourably to the demands being humbly made by the Catholic bishops, because history has shown that they can be very influential. I know that after the publication of the letter, they will preach the same message in church, on their radio stations and in publications." Zambia's constitution has been rewritten three times since independence in 1964.