Zambia: Justice on Trial

Two young Portuguese soldiers patrolling Angola's nervous border with Zambia were surprised to see someone beckoning them from the other side. Angola, a Portuguese colony, and Zambia, an independent nation that harbors anti-Portuguese guerrillas, are virtually at war. The two soldiers were curious about the invitation from the other side. They handed their weapons to a comrade and strolled across the border to chat amicably with a Zambian immigration officer. To their chagrin, they found themselves arrested—and sentenced by an African magistrate in a lower court to a fine of $2,800 or two years in prison for entering Zambia illegally.

Reviewing the judgment, Zambian High Court Justice Ifor Evans ruled that the offense was "trivial" and quashed the conviction. In addition, Justice Evans, who is white, noted that the original verdict "did not redound to the credit of the Zambian authorities."

Down from Heaven. The High Court's ruling posed a severe dilemma for moderate President Kenneth Kaunda. He was caught between his respect for an independent judiciary and the nationalistic outrage of his black citizens over the Portuguese, who have been bombing Zambian villages in order to hit the guerrillas.

Under the circumstances, Kaunda had no choice. In an uncharacteristic outburst, he accused the all-white High Court of behaving like "some organization from heaven looking down on us," while "my people are being slaughtered by the Portuguese." He demanded an explanation from Irish-born Chief Justice James Skinner, a longtime friend, and one of 600 of the country's 65,000 whites who have bothered to become Zambian citizens. Unruffled, Skinner backed up his fellow judge: the ruling had not been politically motivated, he replied. Skinner asserted the judiciary's right to "criticize the executive or its individual servants." Kaunda's office retaliated with a statement that sounded threatening: "The President now knows where the judiciary stands, and he will deal with the matter in his own way."

The next day Kaunda's followers decided to deal with the High Court in their own way. Four hundred members of the Zambian Youth Service gathered in front of Lusaka's red-brick High Court. At the sound of a whistle, they stormed inside. Skinner and Evans locked themselves into an office while the youths pounded on the door and broke up furniture. There were more demonstrations in other towns against the High Court, and a number of Europeans were beaten. Posters reflected the angry mood: "The Only Good White Man Is a Dead One" and "One Zambia, One Nation—Minus Whites."