State behind murder, says opposition

President Chiluba's ex-campaign manager has been murdered

LUSAKA, Zambia -- Opposition leaders in Zambia are alleging that the murder of President Frederick Chiluba's former campaign manager was a state-sponsored assassination.

Paul Tembo, 41, who had joined the opposition in a bid to unseat his former boss, was shot dead at his home on Friday.

He was murdered, in front of his family, hours before he was to testify against three cabinet ministers in a court case.

General Christon Tembo, leader of the opposition Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD), said on Saturday: "I would not be surprised to learn that (Tembo's) information would have linked people in government to corruption and they decided to eliminate him.

"This is a pattern of attack to scare us into submission. This is state sponsored crime."

Another opposition leader, Anderson Mazoka of the United Party for National Development (UPND) said a witch hunt against the opposition was aimed at sustaining Chiluba and his "corrupt government" in power.

"The opposition will need to work closer and create a strong force during elections because the only solution to our current problems is to get Chiluba out of office," he told Reuters.

Paul Tembo is not the first politician to have been killed in recent years.

In 1998 former Finance Minister Ronald Penza was murdered shortly after being fired by Chiluba, while a year later President Kenneth Kaunda's son and political heir Wezi, a strong Chiluba opponent, was also murdered.

Paul Tembo was due to give evidence at a tribunal probing Finance Minister Katele Kalumba, Home Affairs Minister Peter Machungwa and Works and Supply Minister Godden Mandandi, all trusted Chiluba aides, for alleged corruption and abuse of office.

Paul Tembo's lawyers say evidence from their client could have implicated senior government officials including Chiluba.

"One reason why Paul may have been killed was the evidence he was due to give at the corruption tribunal. Paul was likely to implicate the president in the diversion and misuse of public resources," his lawyer Mutembo Nchito told Reuters.

The government has condemned the murder as "an outrageous and dastardly act."

Information Minister Vernon Mwaanga told Reuters it was illogical for the state to embarrass itself ahead of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit.

But General Tembo dismissed Mwaanga's comments: "I think they decided that his life was less important that the information that he had. He (Chiluba) should read MacBeth. He will see Paul Tembo's ghost everywhere."

General Tembo, who is no relation to the victim, said the murder was part of Chiluba's "blatant intention" to revive the third term issue after next week's summit meeting in Zambia of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

"After the OAU summit, I feel he (Chiluba) will go back to his old agenda of seeking a third term," Tembo added.

Paul Tembo headed Chiluba's re-election campaign in 1996 and spearheaded his botched bid this year to seek an unconstitutional third five-year term in office.

He quit Chiluba's Movement for Multi-Party Democracy in May, saying Chiluba had unfairly kept him from becoming vice-president.

Family spokesman Dick Mpheneka described how Tembo was killed within sight of his wife and children.

"There were two intruders. They lured Paul out and then forced him back into the house, into his bedroom," he said.

"They made him lie facing the mattress and then they shot him at point blank."