wfn.org | ZAMBIA - CHURCH LEADERS PROTEST AT DRAFT CONSTITUTION

[George Gundrey <ggundrey@igc.apc.org>]

Anglican Communion News Service
Contact: xxxxxxx at xxxx London, England
December 8, 1995

(ENI)--Zambia's Churches appear to be on a collision course with President
Frederick Chiluba's governing Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) over
the country's draft constitution.

Church leaders are strongly opposed to plans by President Chiluba for the
Zambian parliament to adopt the constitution because the parliament is
overwhelmingly dominated by the MMD.

Instead, the Churches want a special constitutional assembly to be formed
to ensure that Zambia's constitution is "above partisan politics".

A Roman Catholic priest who has campaigned against the adoption of the
draft constitution, along with the chairman of the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace, are facing charges of holding an "unlawful assembly"
after they tried to organise a public meeting to discuss the constitution.

President Chiluba has declared that the new constitution should be adopted
by parliament because that is "the only body mandated to make and unmake
laws. It is the highest law-making body."

It would be wrong for parliament to "abdicate" its responsibility and for a
special constituent assembly to be elected to debate the draft
constitution, President Chiluba has said.

But a spokesman for a delegation of 25 Church leaders, from the Christian
Council of Zambia (CCZ), the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ), and
the Zambian Episcopal Conference (Roman Catholic bishops), who recently met
President Chiluba, said parliament was not the appropriate body to discuss
the constitution as long as it was dominated by the MMD.

"Parliament is dominated by MMD members who can narrow the constitution to
suit their own purposes," the spokesman, Roman Catholic Bishop Dennis de
Jong, said. "The opposition is weak. The government needs pressure from the
people, the Church and civic leaders."

He said a constituent assembly would ensure that there were in place the
checks and balances needed to make certain that the final document was
legitimate and "above partisan politics".

But President Chiluba's special assistant for press and public relations,
Richard Sakala, told ENI that setting up a special assembly would be
extremely expensive and difficult. The government did not have the
financial resources and structural mechanisms for the task.

Bishop De Jong said the Church leaders had "firmly suggested" to President
Chiluba that parliament could pass a law to provide for a constituent
assembly. But President Chiluba said: "It's impossible."

In a related development, Zambian police recently arrested Joel Komakoma, a
Roman Catholic priest who has been campaigning against the adoption of the
draft constitution by parliament, along with Morse Nanchengwa, chairman of
the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice (CCPJ).

They were charged with "unlawful assembly" after they tried to organise a
public discussion of the constitution without holding a police permit for
the meeting. According to some reports, the police had granted a permit,
but later withdrew it without informing the organisers of the discussion.

The Revd Komakoma and Mr Nanchengwa were later released on bail.

Despite the charges, Mr Komakoma remains undaunted. "I am not intimidated,"
he said. "I am still here and I will cooperate with police whenever they
come back because I am a peace-loving Zambian."

Mr Nanchengwa said: "We are going to lobby all our members of parliament
and councillors, to take this issue seriously and overcome their narrow
partisan interests ... we are going to appeal to other sections of society
such as professional trade associations, trade unions, chiefs, students, to
add their voice for a popular and democratic method of adoption [of the
constitution]."

According to international news reports, some Zambian academics have
criticised the draft constitution because it describes the country as a
"Christian nation". A pastor of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God said that
as 70 to 80 per cent of the Zambian population of 8.5 million were
Christians, there was nothing "wrong with declaring the country Christian".
But, according to Inter Press Service (IPS), Professor Morris Lundu, of the
University of Zambia, said: "Practising Christians form only about 40-45
per cent. There are Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, animists, ancestral
worshippers and many more others ..."

The Churches in Zambia are not completely united on this issue. A serious
rift has arisen between, on the one hand, the Pentecostal Assemblies of God
(PAOG) and, on the other hand, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ),
the Zambia (Roman Catholic) Episcopal Conference (ZEC) and the Christian
Council of Zambia (CCZ).

The Pentecostal Assemblies of God have thrown their weight behind
government plans for the adoption of the draft constitution. The other
three Church bodies have all registered deep anxiety over the issue.
  
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