By Kellys Kaunda
Let’s call a spade, a spade: The Vice President of Zambia, Mrs. Mutale Nalumango made a serious misleading statement when she defined the plot on which an embassy is located as foreign territory. In fact, this is one of the major risks in diplomacy when principals speak on matters they have no expertise or speak on matters where they have been ill-advised.
With that statement coming from such a high office, we risk being run over by foreign powers who will now feast on our leader’s uninformed positions in the process pushing an agenda inimical to our cherished values.
It is our patriotic duty as Zambians to correct this fundamental error by the UPND leadership and assert our sovereignty. Zambians must employ the power of democracy by voicing their concerns on matters where they have been misrepresented.
For you in power, just because you were elected doesn’t mean you have the monopoly of wisdom on all matters of governance. In fact, a good number of you are so new to governance, the risk of being run over by civil servants and outsiders is extremely high.
If you must know, the origins of the concept of privileges and immunities can be traced to ancient days when messengers would be imprisoned, ill-treated even killed if they presented to foreign rulers messages they didn’t like. So later, nations agreed on privileges and immunities. Modern diplomacy strengthened and codified them in the 1961 Vienna Convention.
The police, for example cannot force their way into an embassy even if you broke the law. What government can do instead is to ask you to leave the country. This is what the Zambian govt did in the case of the American Ambassador.
So just because force cannot be used to enter an embassy does not declare it foreign territory. Instead, diplomacy calls for peaceful settlement of disputes which would include summoning Ambassadors of concerned embassies to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Because what these embassies did was public, the Zambian govt must report to the Zambian people what measures it has taken. That’s what democratic governance demands.
Madam Vice President, you have seriously compromised the sovereignty of this country. The damage and injury to our statehood may take ages to repair unless President Hichilema takes immediate remedial measures.
