Worrying times in Mazabuka
on Rob Wootton (Zambia), 03/Mar/2011 13:49, 34 days ago
Honestly, until now Mazabuka has been a quiet and friendly place. This all changed when the local police decided to halt the watching on TV of a football match. Around 500 fans were watching the big footy game between Chelsea and Manchester United on Tuesday night in a local pub and whilst this may have been illegal they do not appear to have been causing much trouble. But the police (over) acted, threw tear gas into the building and this resulted in a stampede which led to two tragic deaths. The reaction to the deaths was rioting for much of yesterday by large numbers of residents with the constant echo of guns being fired into the air. I was safely tucked up in workshop for most of Wednesday and around 1700 came out to find a deserted town centre with evidence of rioting in the form of rubbish and rocks strewn over the place, and some burnt out bins. During the day increasing numbers of Police (coming from different parts of the Province) had fought with the rioters after buildings (the Police station, a school, a clinic and some shops) had been attacked. The police continued to use tear gas and pepper spray; tragically leading to a death of a young baby when tear gas was thrown into a home. Later on that evening a truck that had been attacked and ransacked of its goods (fertilizer) earlier in the day was burnt by the rioters. A curfew was put in place and we were all told to stay indoors for the evening.On to today and the onset of heavy rain during the night seemed to have calmed down the situation with the town being busier and almost back to normal. However, in the morning the riot police headed off into some of the compounds in an attempt to catch the previous day's rioters and thieves. This backfired and only made the situation worse. The battles restarted with the police using live ammunition (and not plastic bullets) which led to at least two more deaths. My office at the Council is next to the Police station and we watched as the bodies were brought to the station. The victims’ relatives soon followed and the wailing and screaming that is commonplace here when someone passes away soon began. The rioters also turned their anger on local businessmen, mainly the Indian owners and attacked some of their shops and homes. By the afternoon, and with the situation not improving, a number of us volunteers in Maz packed our bags and headed to the safety of Lusaka rather than locking ourselves in our homes and waiting for things to calm down. Fortunately for me I am off holiday to Cape Town at the weekend.