Ivor Powell and Howard Barrell
New light could be thrown on the assassination of Zambian opposition politician Major Wezi Kaunda if foreign diplomats accede to the dramatic courtroom request of one of two men arrested in connection with the murder.
On Wednesday the suspects, speaking from the dock in preliminary hearings, called on embassy officials from the United States and the United Kingdom, and representatives of the United Nations, to visit him in prison.
The suspect told the courtroom: “I have something to say to them.” He did not ask for Zambian officials to be present.
Opposition representatives have accused the government of Zambian President Frederick Chiluba of being behind the assassination of Kaunda, the heir apparent to the leadership of the United National Independence Party, formerly led by his father, ex-president Kenneth Kaunda.
Wezi Kaunda was gunned down outside his Lusaka home after returning home with his wife Didi late last Wednesday night. Didi Kaunda said that before killing her husband, one of the gunmen said: “You are one of the people we are looking for.”
Zambian police said they believed the murder was criminally motivated, committed in the course of hijacking Wezi Kaunda’s Land Cruiser.
Government officials announced this week that independent foreign detectives were to be brought in to beef up and guaranteee the credibility of Zambian investigations.
In another dramatic courtroom development this week, Moses Mulenga, the first suspect to be arrested after Kaunda’s Land Cruiser overturned a short distance away from the spot where it was taken, testified he was a taxi driver, and that he had been innocently dragged into the crime after picking up three men as fares.
Mulenga told the court he had been told where to drive, where to turn and where to stop – before the three passengers alighted to commit the grisly deed.
Meanwhile, Chiluba seemingly moved to mollify the belligerent Angolan government this week by ordering a minor Cabinet reshuffle in which his own uncle, Ben Mwila, was moved out of the key mineral and energy affairs portfolio and into the more neutral position of environmental affairs and natural resources minister.
Mwila has been named as one of the key political figures giving covert assistance to Unita. He was formerly defence minister – until being shuffled sideways after the Angolan government threatened military action against Zambia if the Unita connection was not broken.
The killing of Kaunda came with regional tensions running high as Angolan troops continued a major offensive against Unita rebels on the western border of Zambia.
The Angolans have accused Zambian authorities of aiding Unita in defiance of UN sanctions, and untested intelligence reports have linked Angola to an alleged coup plot in conspiracy with Zambian dissidents.