Victim families want APM to end July 20 lies
Three years. Three presidents. Lamentations linger as families of 20 people killed during the countrywide demonstrations of July 20 2011 are still seething with frustration following a lengthening search for answers, justice and compensation.
Last week Saturday, spouses and siblings of the 10 gunned down in Mzuzu relived how they have become faces of justice delayed and denied since the fateful day Malawians demonstrated against fallen president Bingu wa Mutharika who courted more controversy by saying they died in vain.
Former president Joyce Banda might have termed the fallen 10 heroes for standing up against re-emergence of dictatorship. She toured graves of eight buried at Zolozolo, but their dependents feel frustrated, saying her condolences amounted to nothing except tough talk.
The case provides a fresh test to the incumbent Peter Mutharika, whose Democratic Progressive Party was in power when their beloved were killed.
In an interview, the victims’ families asked the President to ignore party politics and ensure fairness to finally end the bitter memories of his brother Bingu’s rule.
“During his campaign and swearing in ceremony, the President urged the nation to forget past mistakes and start anew. But how can we burry the past when government is failing to provide sound explanations and justice in view of the death of our beloved,” said the group’s spokesperson Isaac Banda.
During their reign, former president Banda and Bingu instituted inquiries into the killings.
With the nation still waiting for the outcome, Banda toured Zolozolo graveyard in 2012 and ordered the then Ministry of Tourism and Culture to construct granite tombstones on the overgrown graves.
But the bereaved families said the unmarked graves mirror lies and broken promises that have paved their futile wait.
With this year’s anniversary passing without any observance, the family members remember Banda inviting them to Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe, declaring July 20 an annual memorial and handing them a K30 million cheque from Mudzi Transformation Trust for construction of decent homes.
But the good will has birthed lawsuits and countersuits as Mudzi Transformation Trust only credited between K200 000 and K500 000 per victims’ families.
The families say only K6.4 million was deposited into their accounts and they have since engaged lawyers to ask the trust to pay the K25 million balance.
The people also want government to pay K100 000 compensations for loss of lives and source of income.
Centre for Human Rights Rehabilitation (CHRR) executive director Timothy Mtambo says the July 20 incident is a case of politics derailing professional police investigations of human rights abuse, but Police Inspector General Lot Dzonzi told MBC that some officers have been interdicted and disciplined for their role in the killings.
