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BAROTSE NATIONAL FREEDOM ALLIANCE |
July 13, 2016
POSITION STATEMENT ON EDGAR LUNGU AND THE BRE MANEUVERS ON THE RESTORATION OF THE BA’64
by the BNFA National Executive Committee
We take this opportunity to inform the Barotse and International community that the Barotse National Freedom Alliance (BNFA) cannot get involved in any dialogue which seeks to restore the abrogated Barotseland Agreement 1964 (BA’64). Doing so at this stage is to trivialize the spirit and intent of the BA'64, which allowed the territories of North East Rhodesia and Barotseland proceed to independence as a unitary state on condition that Barotseland continued to enjoy her centuries old autonomy. No pre-dialogue or dialogue is needed to restore the Agreement in Zambia’s municipal constitution. If President Lungu seriously wanted to restore the Agreement, he would have done so by simply inserting it in the recently enacted Zambian municipal constitution without consulting anyone in the same manner President Kaunda had unilaterally abrogated the BA'64 in 1969. You cannot violet the human rights of the people of Barotseland to self-determination within the context of an independent unitary state of Zambian, lower their status of a nation into a province and hope to get away with it. Our forefathers signed the Barotseland Agreement in good faith. No country the world over, has ever mutilated a unity treaty. Zambia is the only country to have done so against all odds. The Zambian government should bear full responsibility and face the consequences of doing so. There are several countries born out of unitary arrangements such as England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to form the United Kingdom, Tanganyika and Zanzibar to form Tanzania, the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany. All these countries honored their unitary treaties without acrimony. You cannot eat your cake and have it. As BNFA, we take cognizance of the Barotse National Council (BNC) of March 27, 2012 resolutions seriously with or without the restoration of the BA’64. The people of Barotseland have already decided. We shall always be guided by the people of Barotseland on every action that we take. The BNFA continues to carry the torch for the thousands of the Barotse who assembled during the BNC and the dozens who shed their blood during the 2011 Zambia instigated Mungu riots. There is no turning back. The BNC is not only the supreme policy making body but also the only surviving authority in Barotseland. Nobody, not even the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE), can undo what has been bound by the BNC. BRE is a creation of the government of Zambia meant to subdue the Barotse Government. It is not a recognized institution in the governance system of Barotseland. As BNFA we abhor the nickname and we are doing away with it. It is synonymous with Western Province and Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s first President. BRE neither represents nor serves the people of Barotseland but self-serving appointees. President Lungu had all the time to sort out the Barotseland Agreement impasse. From the outset he made a strong pronouncement about the issue but he never acted on it until the end of his tenure. President Lungu is using the BA'64 BA’64 to get votes in the upcoming Zambia elections as all his predecessors had done. He continues to oppress the Barotse by imprisonment, arrests and denying them the freedom of assemble, association and speech. As BNFA we wish to assure the people of Barotseland to remain calm, never to despair. We call on the Barotse and the international community to support BNFA in actualizing Barotseland statehood.Signed
Clement Wainyae Sinyinda
LEADER, BAROTSE NATIONAL FREEDOM ALLIANCE