HRC Counsels Police, students

Commission Chief of Information, Education and Training Mweelwa Muleya

The Human Rights Commission has advised the Zambia Police Service to refrain from invading rooms of suspected protesting students, dragging them out of their rooms and brutalizing them before detaining them.

Commission Spokesperson Mweelwa Muleya says investigations in the aftermath of the Copperbelt University fracas have revealed that 12 students were treated for injuries, three at Kitwe Central Hospital and nine at the CBU Clinic and that others were reportedly treated at some surrounding clinics.

He explains that one student was still being treated for burns on his private parts, allegedly caused by a teargas canister while the rest had been discharged.

He says there was no record of a Police Officer who was treated at Kitwe Central Hospital as a result of the confrontation with the students.

Mr. Muleya has also disclosed that Medical Officials, Police Officers, CBU Management, the Students Union, Lecturers and Students all refuted the circulating rumor that a student or students died during the fracas with the Police.

He says the commission has also confirmed that the student who was being shown as having died in a video circulating on social media had collapsed from his long-time known illness and was rushed in an ambulance to hospital.

Mr Muleya has emphasized that his illness was not related to the police action.