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Chakwera backs March 3 victims

Leader of opposition in Parliament Lazarus Chakwera has backed demands by a Nkhata Bay chief for Britain to compensate relatives of martyrs massacred in the 1959 State of Emergency which blighted Malawi’s struggle for self-rule.

The demand for the former colonial masters to pay up have become a byword for Martyrs Day commemorations since March 3 2013 when Senior Chief Nkumbira brought it to the attention of the then president Joyce Banda and they received a timely boost in June that year when Britain paid out about £20.9 million (about K14.3 billion) to torture victims of Mau Mau uprisings in Kenya.

Chakwera (C) greeting Gondwe at the function on Tuesday
Chakwera (C) greeting Gondwe at the function on Tuesday

Speaking at the national Martyrs Day commemoration in Nkhata Bay on Tuesday, Nkumbira said the families of 31 unarmed natives gunned down by British soldiers at Nkhata Bay Jetty are still waiting for justice—59 years after the protest against the impending arrest of founding president the late Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the poster-face of the liberation struggle.

“We would like you to remind government to remind Britain that the people of Nkhata Bay demand compensation for the lives lost during the State of Emergency on March 3 1959,” Nkumbira told Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe at the Martyrs Day observance.

Gondwe might have sidestepped the sticky issue, but the appeal got the backing from Chakwera, who is also Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president.

After the State function, the opposition leader made a personal trip to Kasweswe Village in Nkumbira where he met with the victims’ families and promised to meet senior lawyers on whether to seek redress through courts or the National Assembly.

Nkhata Bay Central MP Ralph Mhone, a lawyer by profession, said affected Malawians have two options to get similar compensation for atrocities committed during British Colonial Rule.

“The martyrs were not criminals,” said Mhone. “I want to help present the case of the relatives of the victims’ case to Britain. First, we will engage Britain diplomatically to own up to their responsibility. If that fails, we will escalate the case to the High Court of London like Kenyans did.”

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