Fears over rising political violence

Rampaging political gangs torched several vehicles and attacked voters in a crucial parliamentary by-election in Zambia's capital on Tuesday, heightening fears that widespread political violence will undermine general elections scheduled for the year-end. Both opposition parties and independent observers blamed the violence on the "Ku Klux Klan" - a corps of ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) cadres. They have been accused of terrorising Lusaka's central business district and townships to disrupt opposition activity and assert the party's authority. At least 10 people, including a reporter on the 'Monitor', an NGO-backed tabloid, sustained serious injuries after MMD cadres and the opposition Forum for Development and Democracy (FDD) clashed during and after the voting in the working class township of Chawama. Opposition candidate Jeff Samukonga won the poll, which analysts considered a litmus test for the popularity of political parties that plan to contest the forthcoming general elections. The Chawama parliamentary seat fell vacant when vice-president Christon Tembo quit the ruling party to join the breakaway FFD. President Frederick Chiluba subsequently dissolved his cabinet after 20 other MMD parliamentarians, including some key ministers, opposed his attempt to run for a third term. The Zambian constitution imposes a two-term restriction on the presidency. The formation of FDD, which is widely seen as posing the most serious challenge to Chiluba's MMD, has resulted in an unprecedented wave of inter-party clashes in which several people have been seriously wounded and a number of houses and government vehicles damaged. The violence prompted Chiluba to call for peace during a campaign rally in Chawama on Monday. "We don't want politics of destruction in Zambia," he said. However, opposition leaders and independent observers blame the ruling party for the violence. According to the independent press, the violence on Tuesday started after minister without portfolio Michael Sata led a gang of unruly ruling party supporters armed with machetes and stones on a tour of the 34 polling stations. "The violence was engineered by the ruling party, and Michael Sata in particular, to create confusion and so enable MMD to tamper with the ballot boxes," Ngande Mwanajiti, executive director of the Inter African Network for Human Rights and Development (Afronet) told IRIN. "MMD is responsible for all the political violence we have seen in recent weeks". The opposition United National Independence Party (UNIP), which also contested Tuesday's by-election, warned that the ruling party was driving Zambia to the brink of civil strife. "This country will be set on fire if MMD's conduct in elections is not checked," UNIP vice president Rabbison Chongo said. Opposition parties claim that the government has issued members of the Ku Klux Klan with firearms for use in inter-party clashes. The government denies the allegation. However, opposition leaders continue to hold the MMD and the government responsible for recent shootings in the capital that are widely seen to have been politically motivated. Last month, an MMD constituency chairman shot and wounded a female member of the opposition Heritage Party led by former education minister Godfrey Miyanda during a barroom brawl in the bustling township of Kabwata. Opposition leaders also blame the MMD for the brutal killing of prominent FDD leader Paul Tembo only hours before he gave evidence before a tribunal investigating the diversion of two billion kwacha (about US $555 000) from government coffers to fund an MMD convention. Tembo, who until last month was one of Chiluba's key advisors, was shot dead in his bedroom by two gunmen as his wife looked on. While they have no tangible evidence linking MMD to the killing, opposition supporters staged an anti-government demonstration during last week's Organisation for African unity (OAU) summit, carrying placards claiming: 'Chiluba, you have murdered Paul Tembo'. "It (Tembo's killing) was engineered to suppress evidence which should have linked Chiluba to, among other financial scandals, the diversion of two billion kwacha to finance the MMD convention," former vice-president Christon Tembo claimed. Following the allegations leveled against it, the Chiluba government asked Britain's Scotland Yard to send a team to conduct an independent investigation into the murder. However, Scotland Yard declined to help, saying it did not think it would be able to identify Tembo's killers. In the growing climate of fear and accusation, opposition leaders including Miyanda and former president Kenneth Kaunda, claim to have escaped assassination attempts at the hands of state agents. Meanwhile, former finance minister Edith Nawakwi, one of the most vocal leaders of FDD, alleges she has information that key officials have hired a group of men to rape her.