Africa-Press – Zambia. President of the Socialist Party in Zambia Fred M’membe has said that Zambia Police’s response to what he described as the very serious accusations of torturing former president Mr. Edgar Lungu’s barber, Mr. Shabby Chilekwa, raises very serious concerns and is unacceptable.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Dr. M’membe said that if the treatment subjected to Mr. Shabby Chilekwa isn’t evil then evil has no meaning.
Dr. M’membe said that to date, the Human Rights Commission has not said anything on this very serious and very urgent matter and added that if they are not careful, this regime will soon find itself trapped in the painful politics of impunity.
Below is the full statement The Zambia Police’s response to the very serious accusations of torturing former president Mr Edgar Lungu’s barber, Mr Shabby Chilekwa, raises very serious concerns and is unacceptable.
Zambia Police spokesman says they will not respond to allegations of torturing Mr Chilekwa by his lawyers and leave that to the Human Rights Commission. Mr Chilekwa’s lawyers say “he was been badly beaten and repeatedly tortured and has lashes on his back, his ears are injured, has blood in his urine and has serious bidy pains”.
If this isn’t evil, then evil has no meaning. To date, the Human Rights Commission has not said anything on this very serious and very urgent matter. If they are not careful, this regime will soon find itself trapped in the painful politics of impunity.
We should all speak out against torture, an abhorrent denial of human dignity. Torture is an egregious abuse of human rights that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Our laws unequivocally prohibit torture in all instances. This is so because torture seeks to annihilate a victim’s personality and denies a human being of his or her inherent dignity.
There’s no felony offence or national security considerations that can justify torture and other forms of cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment. And its pervasive consequences often go beyond the isolated act on an individual to be transmitted through generations, leading to cycles of violence. We condemn torture as one of the vilest acts perpetrated by human beings on their fellow human beings.
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