Africa-Press – Zambia. THE secessionists from Western Province have revived their decades’ long petition of getting separated from the country and declare the region an independent and sovereign state to be called Barotseland.
But the UPND says Zambia is a unitary State and constitutionally a Republic and the Linyungandambo should have consulted widely before calling for secession of Western Province from the rest of the country because the people of Southern Province are happy to be Zambian citizens.
The Linyungandambo, a group of Western Province separatists have written to President Hakainde Hichilema demanding that he should call for a meeting at which the boundary of what they call Baroteland would be drawn.
The Linyungandambo in a letter to President Hichilema dated November 20, 2022 are also demanding the sharing of assets between Zambia and Barotseland and the identification of citizens from Western Province.
The letter which has been copied to Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), the British Government, the Commonwealth and the African Union (AU) is signed by Samuel Kalimukwa, Inambao Kalima and Ilukena Mukubesa.
The trio claim that according to the resolutions of the Barotse National Council (BNC) of 2012, Western Province accepted the abrogation and nullification of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 by Zambia and was therefore no longer part of the country.
The Linyungandambo says for the last 53 years since 1969, Barotseland (Western Province) had been treated by Zambia as an illegally occupied state and that the people of the region who had been questioning their status had been subjected to arrests, detentions, torture and killings.
And now, the Linyungandambo are demanding that President Hichilema should grant Western Province the right to be separated from the rest of the country so that it could declare itself independent.
“We wish to remind you Mr President, that you have inherited this longstanding controversial issue of Barotseland and Zambia. The issue definitely needs a permanent and lasting solution. We presume that the story of Barotseland and Zambia is sufficiently well known and understood by every person of the two countries. The tragedy is that the issue is always treated lightly and at worst rubbished and ignored by Zambia,” the Linyungandambo said.
But Cornelius Mweetwa, the UPND spokesperson said while the governing party was aware of the Linyungandambo and their campaign to have Western Province secede from Zambia and become an independent Barotseland, the calls were out of order especially that President Hakainde Hichilema was determined to unite the country that had been divided on tribal and regional lines.
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