Zambia’s ruling on Jehovah’s Witnesses

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33065, 4 November 1972, Page 15

Zambia’s ruling on Jehovah’s Witnesses

(N.Z.P A.-Reuter—Copyright) LUSAKA, November 3. Zambia will make immediate arrangements to return to Malawi the 10,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses who have fled into Zambia in the last few week, the Minister of Home Affairs (Mr Lewis Changufu) says.

Radio Zambia reports that, speaking on his return from a three-day visit to Blantyre for talks with President Banda, Mr Changufu said that members of the sect fled “for absolutely no reason.”

“After favourable, and interesting discussions with my colleagues in Blantyre, 1 am fully convinced that the panic and alarm expressed by the Watchtower members arose from unfounded reasons,” the radio quotes the Minister as saying. “Zambia will make sure the refugees return to their own country immediately. “The Malawi Government has responded favourably to this decision.” The exodus of Jehovah’s Witnesses from Malawi into Zambia began in September, after members of the sect, which has been banned in Malawi since 1967, were denounced by Dr Banda as “devil’s disciples.”

Reliable sources in Blantyre subsequently reported that members of the sect were being harassed and in some cases murdered, by members of the youth wing of the ruling Malawi Congress Party. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees last week granted SUS4O,OOO to help the Zambian Government to clothe and feed the refugees, who are at present in a camp at Sinda Misale, near the East Zambian town of Chipata. Dr Hugo Indoyaga, the local representative of the High Commissioner, visited Sinda Misale last month, and said on his return that a number of the refugees were arriving injured in Zambia. The Malawi Minister of Community Development (Mr Moredechi Lungu) declared in Lusaka last week there had

been no persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in his country, and he added that he knew nothing of any exodus to Zambia.