HRC condemns escalating violence by party cadres

Posted Oct 28, 2009

The Human Rights Commission plans to hold a meeting with all political parties and other stakeholders to come up with ways of eliminating the threat of political violence in the country.

Chairperson Mrs Pixie Yangailo said this when she reiterated the Commission’s deep concern over recurring instances of violent attacks on perceived political opponents and threats to journalists by political party cadres.

Mrs Yangailo said it was extremely worrisome that individuals on opposite sides of the political divide seemed to be growing ever more intolerant of each others’ views and were using cadres to get at each other.

Agreeing with the Government’s stand to condemn such acts, she stated that those in positions of authority in political parties must rein in their followers by not just condemning their actions but going further to discipline them when they were identified.

Mrs Yangailo expressed worry that the violence might escalate and get out totally of control as the nation got closer to the 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections.

“We need to put our heads together as a nation to forestall such a possibility,” she said, adding that failure to stop the violence now could lead to widespread violation of human rights.

“It is easy to start violence but very difficult to stop it. We have bitter lessons to learn from other countries which allowed violence to penetrate their political scenarios.

It led to unnecessary injuries, loss of life, creation of internal refugees as people were displaced from their livelihoods and a lot of preventable injustices and suffering. Surely that is not what we want for our country!”

The date for the meeting would announced after consultations with the concerned parties.