Trigger-happy cops are a thorn in the flesh
Just Chatting with Wam KwaleyelaSQUAD, Attention! That was probably the order that some Zambia Police Service commandant barked to constables and sergeants who were drilled to go and quell disturbances at the University of Zambia’s Great East Road campus in Lusaka recently.
It is obvious that the commandant, whoever he may be, told the squad that they should carry with them long batons, teargas canisters, shields and protective helmets and even guns. What I don’t know is whether the commandant told them to load the rifles with live ammunition or rubber bullets.
So some cops or a cop, in their or his wisdom or the lack of it, coupled with being trigger-happy, arrived at the Great East Road campus of the university and found the students in no uncompromising mood.
They were throwing stones and all sorts of missiles targeting motorists, motor-cyclists, cyclists and pedestrians who were using the Great East Road.
The rioting students were protesting against their meal allowances of K300,000 which they considered to be inadequate. They wanted the allowances to be increased to K600,000.
There were the cops, drilled to quell the disturbances as per their training at Lilayi Police Training College, a stone’s throw from the city.
Needless to say, the cops were armed to the teeth and some of them had somewhat a zero tolerance over riots and were itching to squeeze the triggers.
Pulling the trigger, indeed one of them did, and he shot Chewe Chisala, a second-year student in the School of Engineering, in the leg. He also shot Samuel Nasilele, a second-year student in the School of Education in the chest.
They were rushed to the clinic by fellow students and were later taken to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).
A bullet wound is really painful; it is more than a thorn in the flesh.
Now I will tell you what recruits learn at Lilayi. First and foremost they are trained in the ways of maintaining law and order.
Secondly, they are taught how to keep fit, to be in tip-top condition, and how to handle dangerous criminals, They are also taught self-defence tactics.
Thirdly, they are taught drill. Squad, fall in! Chest out! Chiteeeee! By the left, quick match! Left, right, left, right, left, right, Halt!...and all that jazz. You see, drill is vital in that it instills into the policeman or woman the sense of discipline and the need to obey orders.
Recruits are also taught a few other seemingly little things but as British pop star Cliff Richard (now Sir Cliff) once crooned, Little Things Mean A Lot.
According to my uncle who is a retired policeman, cops are taught such little things as never to laugh in public but to always wear a somewhat gloomy face. If they want to look cheerful they are at liberty do so in the police mess. That is where they may mess around the way they want.
Let’s go back to the ship. Here was a police squad in full riot kit drilled to quell a stone-throwing mob. The cop who pulled the trigger knew very well that a gun loaded with live bullets is a lethal machine.
When he pulled that trigger he must have done so knowing that it is capable of terminating the life of a human being.
President Levy Mwanawasa was not amused when the police told him that they used live bullets because they had run out of teargas. He described the excuse as “stupid”.
Speaking to journalists at Lusaka International Airport on his way to Japan to attend the Tyoko International Conference on African Development, Dr Mwanawasa said:
“I asked them why they had to use live bullets. They told me that they had run out of teargas. Now that excuse is stupid, they should have run away.”
I concur with Dr Mwanawasa 100 plus 1 per cent.
By aiming rifles loaded with live ammunition at rioting students, the trigger-happy cop did not achieve anything. If he did, it was to display his cowardice, and I doubt whether that is part of the curriculum at the once famous Lilayi Police Training College.
If I may turn to the students, allow me to say that their case is understood A sum of K300,000 is not enough for one’s digestive fortifications. Be that as it may, rioting is not the answer.
The answer lies in dialogue We are not short of round tables for two parties to sit around and discuss issues on which they disagree.
When the Minister of Education, Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa visited the wounded students in hospital recently, he pointed out that the meal allowances were under a cost-sharing programme.
If that is the case, it brings to the fore the need for dialogue. It may happen that the students were not aware of the cost-sharing part of the allowances. Moreover, Dr Mwanawasa has said that the students could not be paid more than what the Government had budgeted for.
I still insist and I always shall insist that rioting and even peaceful protests do not solve problems, real or imagined. There are times when I feel that the Great East Road should be closed if these student riots do not stop.
The highway is a busy one as it passes through a very densely populated area. It was meant to be a convenience but now riotous students have turned into a hazard.
As President Mwanawasa narrated to journalists: “As I was coming from Mansa I had to redirect my mororcade and we had to go to Kalingalinga because the students blocked the road when they heard that the President was coming.
“What was their intention? As far as I am concerned, I am innocent. What would have happened if I had been injured?”
Dialogue is my message to the students. I don’t want to believe that when the Psalmist said in the Book of Psalms Chapter 115, Verse 5, according to the King James Version: “They have mouths, but they speak not…”, he was referring to the students.
I may as well take this opportunity to remind trigger-happy cops that those guns are meant for use when they are fighting with bandits.
Ends.
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