No amount of intimidation or heavy presence of Zambian troops can stop Barotseland independence actualization

by Saleya Kwalombota

Zambia should swallow her pride and voluntarily vacate Barotseland instead of illegally occupying the territory. Zambia has been a failed state since 1969 and Barotseland freed itself in March 2012 when the people of Barotseland accepted the 1969 dissolution (termination) of the marriage between Zambia and Barotseland, thanks to Zambia's ill intentions. The Zambian government terminated the Barotseland Agreement 1964 without the consent of the other party, in this case the Barotseland government.

Failure by any of the parties to honor the treaty frees the other party from the obligations therein. Whether Zambia is ignorant of this fact or it is just adamant, it must live with the fact that its action of abrogating the BA’64 in 1969 freed the nation of Barotseland, which has now determined its own destiny (opted for independence). Barotseland ceased to be part of Zambia as soon as BA’64 was unilaterally abrogated.

The state of Zambia through her courts falsified and ostracized the termination of the BA’64. It is within this legal interpretation together with the legitimate political decision of the people of Barotseland through the March 27, 2017 BNC that the Zambian government has no political authority over Barotseland and the imprisonment of Barotseland independence advocates is itself illegal. It is, therefore, no longer necessary to belabor the point that the question of SECESSION does not arise vis-ŕ-vis the matter of Barotseland self-determination.

Barotseland opted and stated clearly that it has reverted to her pre-independence status, then later to graduate to statehood through diplomacy not the barrel of a gun. It's surprising that the Zambian government knows well the consequences of abrogating the BA’64, the only legal document it could have relied upon if at all the action taken by Barotseland was born out of illegality, instead of military occupation strategy with its attendant consequences.

Those with sound mind over the Barotseland question will note that the Zambian government has been impolite, dishonest and simplistic in handling the grievances arising from the abrogated BA’64, inter alia a letter of 1993 to Ngambela Hon. G Mukande from the government of Zambia through the office of Minister without Portfolio, where Zambia without ambiguity that the BA64 was statute stale.  Therefore, Barotseland has every right to proceed to independence since the treaty is statute stale while on the other hand the resolutions of 2012 BNC are irreversible. In this regard, the deployment of Zambian security personnel and military hardware is contrary to the spirit of peaceful settlement of disputes.

It is in public domain that the government of Zambia has stationed its troops across Barotseland following the independence declaration of 2012 through the body called the Barotseland National Council (BNC). Barotseland is neither at war with Zambia nor her neighbors. Therefore, the act of militarizing the territory by the Zambian government is an act of occupation, which in the scope of international law is illegal.

Barotseland is not a conquered nation to be subjected to perpetual political enslavement by the failed state of Zambia since the "unitary" formation of Zambia was dissolved through the termination of the BA’64.