Government says militia, Mundubile says persecution: are Zambians being hoodwinked on both sides?

*Due Process Watch* ## The raid that started it On the night of August 13 into August 14, more than 80 personnel from the police, the Drug Enforcement Commission and military special forces raided Brian Mundubile's residence in Kabulonga, Lusaka, using armoured vehicles. The government calls it an intelligence-led counter-insurgency operation and says it recovered military-version Uzis, AK-47s, bulletproof vests and K7.3 million in cash it has described as suspicious. Mundubile's account is different. He says the raid was an unprovoked assault, with live ammunition fired inside his home while his family, including his young twin daughters, sheltered from it. "My colleague was shot at in my presence," he said. "This was not politics." That colleague was former Transport Minister Mutotwe Kafwaya. Government officials initially dismissed reports of his death as "social media rumours." Police Inspector General Graphel Musamba confirmed on August 19 that Kafwaya had in fact died of gunshot wounds sustained during the raid, and that he had been admitted to hospital and registered as an "unidentified male." Why a former government minister was logged as unidentified has not been explained. ## Eleven treason charges Eleven people now face non-bailable treason charges connected to the raid. Among them: George Chisanga, Mundubile's campaign spokesperson and a former Law Association of Zambia president, who is challenging his detention in the Lusaka High Court; Bishop Trevor Mwamba, president of the United National Independence Party and a retired Bishop of Botswana educated at Oxford and Yale; and Simon Phiri, Richard Banda, Francis Mulenga and Patrick Mwansa, named as security personnel around Mundubile. Three former special-forces soldiers, described as having 20 years of specialist military experience between them, were also arrested. ## How far the net has spread The arrests go well beyond the eleven treason cases. Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance figures have been picked u