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Zambian president targets graft
11/05/2007 13:18 - (SA)
Lusaka - Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa
has vowed all graft offenders will be punished after a London
court ordered his predecessor Frederick Chiluba to return $41m
alleged to have been stolen while he was in office.
In his first public remarks since British Judge Peter Smith
handed down his ruling on Chiluba, Mwanawasa said his government
would spare no one in the anti-graft crusade.
Smith said last Friday that Chiluba must personally pay back
$41m of the $46m he and 19 other former senior
government officials are accused of siphoning from the Treasury.
Smith said he was satisfied Zambia had proved the charges
filed against Chiluba in a British court.
"We abhor such transgressions and what it means is that
anyone who abuses public funds will be punished," Mwanawasa told
journalists and Western diplomats in Livingstone, 480km south of Lusaka.
Fighting corruption 'risky'
Mwanawasa, who was picked by Chiluba as his successor in
2001, said he had taken a great risk to fight corruption but
would not relent.
"I know that the path I have taken (to fight corruption) is
dangerous to my family, myself and the country but someone had
to start the fight," he said.
Chiluba denied on Thursday that he or his associates had
stolen the funds in question during his decade-long rule and
accused Mwanawasa and the British government of "engineering"
the judgment against him.
Smith ruled in a case Zambia brought in a British court, a
move Zambian officials said was aimed at recovering properties
Chiluba and his associates had bought in Britain, Belgium and
other European nations using stolen public funds.
In a separate local trial, Zambia has hit Chiluba with
criminal charges of stealing $488 000 while in office.
Chiluba's trial stalled in May 2006 because of ill health,
but he said on Thursday he looked forward to explaining his
position in court when the case resumes.
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