Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Zambia.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Zambia. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Zambia U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/zambia/
[accessed 12 August
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT Local media
reported police used arbitrary and excessive force to enforce public health
regulations implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19. According to the
nongovernmental organization (NGO) Chapter One Foundation, police routinely
beat individuals found frequenting bars and other commercial locations in
violation of COVID-19 restrictions. Impunity was a
significant problem within the security forces, particularly police, and was
especially common during the COVID-19 pandemic. The factors that contributed
to impunity were a lack of training in, understanding of, and respect for
human rights. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Physical conditions
in prisons and detention centers remained harsh and life threatening due to
overcrowding, frequent outbreaks of disease, food and potable water
shortages, poor sanitation, and inadequate medical care. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Pretrial Detention:
Prolonged pretrial detention, including that of irregular migrants awaiting
trial or removal, continued to be a problem. On average detainees spent an
estimated six months in pretrial detention, which often exceeded the maximum
length of the prison sentence corresponding to the detainee’s alleged crime.
Contributing factors included inability to meet bail requirements, trial
delays, and trial continuances due to absent prosecutors and their witnesses.
Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/zambia/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 18 May
2020] F3. IS THERE
PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR
AND INSURGENCIES? Allegations of police
brutality are widespread, and security forces generally operate with
impunity. In March 2017, a Zambian air force officer was brutally beaten and
killed while being detained for a minor traffic violation, in an incident the
Human Rights Commission ruled amounted to his torture. The police officers
and inmates responsible were arrested and charged for his murder. Conditions in
pretrial detention facilities and prisons are poor, and reports of forced
labor, abuse of inmates by authorities, and deplorable health conditions
continue. Let’s criminalise torture – Inonge Zambia Daily Mail, 3
March 2015 www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=22065 [accessed 31 March
2015] www.daily-mail.co.zm/lets-criminalise-torture-inonge/ [accessed 20 January
2019] Vice-President Inonge Wina says torture should
be criminalised because it has a lot of devastating
effects on individuals and society. Mrs Wina noted that lack of a legal framework that criminalises torture is the most serious challenge in the
fight against the vice. “Without torture
being a clearly defined offence under our penal laws, we have seen a
situation where acts of torture are being perpetrated which is not in
accordance with the gravity of the offence committed,” she said. The vice-president
said that torture is not just a form of violence but a grave violation of
human rights which has damaging consequences on the victims. Mrs Wina called for concerted efforts at all levels to
eliminate the possibility of torture occurring anywhere in the country. NGO
Denounces Torture in Zambian Prison Charles Sakala,
Zambia Reports, 6 May 2013 allafrica.com/stories/201305060524.html [accessed 7 May
2013] The Prisons Carer
and Counseling Association (PRISCA) executive director Geoffrey Malembeka has
asked the Zambia Prisons Service to stop torturing two inmates who were
re-captured after a dramatic prison break two months ago. In an interview,
Malembeka said torturing prisoners was not a solution to rehabilitating
prisoners because it was also against law and human rights. He said in Lusaka
that the Zambia Prisons Service must engage the social counseling strategy in
rehabilitating inmates. "We are aware
that the prisoners who had escaped but were re-arrested in Chipata last week
are being tortured. This is an old method of dealing with such situations. Policing
and Human Rights -- Assessing southern African countries’ compliance with the
SARPCCO Code of Conduct for Police Officials Edited by Amanda
Dissel & Cheryl Frank, African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum APCOF,
2012 ISBN:
978-1-920489-81-6 [accessed 25 March
2014] [ZAMBIA] -- ARTICLE
4: TORTURE AND CRUEL, INHUMAN AND DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT No police official shall, under any circumstances,
inflict, instigate, or tolerate any act of torture and other cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment of any person. Torture and other
forms of ill-treatment occur with alarming frequency. The ZHRC has noted many
instances of police torture and ill-treatment. This occurs against suspects
and against detainees in police detention.
In 2009 and 2010, Human Rights Watch and PRISCA interviewed 249
inmates in prison for a study on the health of inmates. They found that
‘testimony provided by prisoners indicated an ongoing widespread and
systematic pattern of brutality’ by the police while they were in police
custody’. Prisoners reported that they
had been repeatedly beaten by police in order to extract confessions. Some of
the beatings resulted in serious injury, with some even sustaining permanent
injury. Police from the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) were
particularly implicated in ‘systematic abuse, including binding and hanging
prisoners from the ceiling to force confessions’. Civil society organisations
have also noted widespread torture and abuse by police, even for ‘petty crimes
such as stealing cell phones’. Zambia: Police
Brutality, Torture Rife Human
Rights Watch HRW, New York, 7 September 2010 www.hrw.org/news/2010/09/03/zambia-police-brutality-torture-rife [accessed
14 Feb 2014] Human Rights Watch,
the Prisons Care and Counselling Association, and the AIDS and Rights
Alliance for Southern Africa interviewed prisoners at six prisons throughout
Zambia's central corridor. They described what happened to them in police
custody, before they were transferred to prison. Dozens of detainees said
they had been beaten with metal bars, hammers, broom handles, police batons,
sticks, or even electrified rods. Many said they had been bound first and
hung upside down. Female detainees reported that police officers tried to
coerce sex in exchange for their release. "Hanging
suspects from the ceiling and beating them to coerce confessions is routine
police practice in Zambia," said Rona Peligal, Africa director at Human
Rights Watch. "The government needs to call an immediate halt to police
abuse, investigate violations, and strengthen grievance mechanisms." These reports of
physical abuse of men, women, and children held in police custody indicate a
widespread and systematic pattern of brutality, in some cases rising to the
level of torture, Human Rights Watch said. Conclusions
and recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/ZMB/CO/2
(2008) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/zambia2008.html [accessed 12 March
2013] Obligation to
investigate and the right to complain 8. The Committee
notes with satisfaction that the Human Rights Commission is allowed to
conduct prison and police cells inspections. However, it is concerned that it
does not have sufficient financial and human resources to conduct such visits
nor the power to take action against persons found guilty, as it can only
make recommendations to the competent authorities. The Committee also expresses concern about
the frequent failure by the State party to implement the Commission’s
recommendations and that the Commission is not competent to initiate legal
proceedings on behalf of complainants (art. 11). 10. While noting
that officers found guilty by the Police Public Complaints Authority have
been charged with administrative sanctions, the Committee regrets the absence
of prosecution of perpetrators of torture and cruel, in-human or degrading
treatment, as well as the lack of appropriate penalties for such
perpetrators. The Committee is also concerned at the lack of appropriate
compensation for victims of torture (arts. 4 and 14). Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=zambia+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 20 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 3 Civil Liberties: 3 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/zambia [accessed 17
February 2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] Allegations of
police corruption, brutality, and even torture are widespread, but security
forces have generally operated with impunity. Prison conditions are very
harsh; severe overcrowding, poor nutrition, and limited access to health care
have led to many inmate deaths. In 2007, the government began efforts to
reduce crowding, in part by pardoning over 800 convicts. More than 100
prisoners were pardoned in 2008. Human
Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61599.htm [accessed 17
February 2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61599.htm [accessed 7 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, police frequently used excessive force
when apprehending, interrogating, and detaining criminal suspects or illegal immigrants,
and there were reports of torture. Authorities detained, interrogated, and
physically abused family members or associates of criminal suspects in
attempts to identify or locate suspects (see section 1.f.). Officers who
tortured, beat, or otherwise abused suspects generally were not disciplined
or arrested for such acts, although local human rights organizations,
particularly LRF, were active in pressing for such action. Langton Sakala reported that Lusaka police beat and tortured him
from December 21, 2004 to January 19, following his detention on charges of
theft. Sakala said that police beat him with a
baton and put him on the "kampelwa," to
force a confession. The kampelwa involves using a
rope or handcuffs to bind a suspect by the hands and feet, or sometimes just
the feet, and hanging the suspect upside down from a rod and beating him. Sakala filed a civil suit against the officers, which was
still pending at year's end. In December 2004
police officers accused Terry Bilumba of taking
part in an armed robbery and brought him to the Livingstone Central Police
Station where they beat him. After releasing Bilumba,
police detained him for questioning again on January 8. Bilumba
was later released without charges. On June 7, police
arrested Ben Chola on firearms charges. Chola said that police beat him repeatedly with a steel
rod and suspended him in the kampelwa until his
father paid approximately $25 (100 thousand kwacha) for his unconditional
release on June 16. The January 2004
case of torture of Nkumbwa Daniel Jones was
referred to the Police Public Complaints Authority (PPCA) and was under
investigation at year's end. In the case of the
March 2004 beating and paralysis of Aliyele Sakala, he has reportedly moved to another village and
LRF has not been able to pursue his case. At year's end there
was no new information in the case of the March 2004 beating of Adam Simukwai. Victims of
state-sponsored torture following the 1997 coup attempt were still awaiting compensation
recommended in 2000 by a special commission appointed to investigate
allegations of torture. The civil case against former Drug Enforcement
Commission Deputy Commissioner Teddy Nondo, former
Commissioner of Police Emmanuel Lukonde, and
Attorney General George Kunda was still pending at
year's end; Commissioner Lukonde died during the
year. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
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ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
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