Malawi to compensate William Banda

MALAWI has agreed to compensate President Mwanawasa’s special advisor on party affairs William Banda for the torture he suffered in police custody when he was deported to that country 14 years ago.

Mr Banda confirmed this in Lusaka yesterday but did not know how much money he would receive until a final determination was done.

Mr Banda, a former Lundazi Governor in the UNIP administration said he recently received correspondence from Malawi about the decision by the Government to compensate him after the courts ruled in his favour on the torture he suffered under former president Bakili Muluzi’s administration.

“I can confirm that the Malawian government has decided to compensate me. I was badly tortured.

This happened when former president Frederick Chiluba was going to Malawi. I was picked up by police at Lilongwe police station who tied me to a table and beat me badly,” Mr Banda said.

Mr Banda said officials from the Centre of Human Rights and Rehabilitation in Malawi and Amnesty International intervened to assist him.

He has asked the Zambian High Commission in Malawi to help him get the money. He would be awarded an additional K81 million if the Malawian government fails to establish the village they claimed he came from.

“We sued the government and when we went to court we challenged them to take us to the village where they said we came from and the judgment was made that we should be brought back to Zambia,” he said.

“The Malawian government gave us transport to take us to the border but the officials from the Zambian mission in Malawi went to protest and yet the Malawian government admitted that we were not received by them but by the officials from the embassy,” Mr Banda said.

Mr Banda was deported to Malawi in October 1994 after the Supreme Court upheld his deportation.

The court ruled that Mr Banda was not a Zambian and has “exhibited himself to be a big liar” to the court about his family tree.

The court ruled that Mr Banda was a Malawian named Saidi Awari who came from Nkono, Chief Maleza in Nkota-Kota.

When President Mwanawasa assumed office, he directed that Mr Banda be brought back to Zambia after the Malawian government established that he was Zambian.

Mr Banda was the second prominent UNIP member to be deported to Malawi after John Chinula, a member of central committee in charge of labour and social security was deported earlier the same year.