Chiluba's $29m headache - Zambia - Pat Robertson's Christian model

[dArKeR]

Zambia's former president Frederick Chiluba was charged Tuesday with stealing $29m (about R244m) of public funds and committing dozens of other offences while in office, police said.

The head of the investigation told reporters that the former president would appear in court on August 27 to answer a total of 48 charges.

According to one of the charges, $29 million was diverted from the finance ministry and deposited into the state intelligence agency's account in Britain.

Chiluba, who left office in 2001, already faces 60 other charges relating to corruption and diversion of state funds during his 10 years as president of this southern African country.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1397678,00.html



Frederick Chiluba of Zambia
The story of Frederick Chiluba is also an interesting one. The President of Zambia since 1991, he declared that Zambia would henceforth be a Christian nation. The public school system became Christian-only, despite the existence of a sizable minority of Muslims and Hindus in the country. In response to their need for education, Chiluba simply suggested that they open up their own schools. The national TV and radio stations also turned to all Christian programming. Robertson did an interview with Chiluba on the 700 Club in 1995, telling him "Your country is not only the standard for Africa but for the rest of the world." Afterward, he asked his audience "Wouldn't you love to have someone like that as President of the United States of America?"
http://www.proislam.com/target_friends_pat_robertson.htm


Who has committed more sins, Pat Robertson or Saddam's sons?

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In "Trouble in Lusaka," Barraclough investigated the causes of Zambia's declining economic prospects in the 1990s as it transitioned from a state-planned to a more free-market economy. Optimism over that transition had been high. But privatization of state-owned industries soon became marred by official corruption, and by December 1998, when Barraclough's investigation was published, most Western nations had greatly reduced their aid programs to Zambia.

According to Barraclough's interviews with former ministers and other officials in Zambia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, President Frederick Chiluba had purchased properties in Belgium, the Netherlands, and South Africa since taking office, and had sealed off his inner circle of advisors from corruption investigations. The World Bank and IMF, nevertheless, continued to disburse hundreds of millions of aid dollars to the country, allowing the government to delay the sale of near-bankrupt copper mines. And despite his record of mismanaging Zaire's copper mines while serving as director from 1973 to 1992, Francis Kaunda was appointed chief negotiator for the mines' privatization, on a $16,000 monthly salary (compared to around $500 a month for cabinet ministers). "Zambia's privatization was a looting exercise," said Jeremy Pope of Transparency International, an organization that monitors global corruption. "Government ministers simply grabbed the assets." 

http://www.icij.org/about/1999finalists.html

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Publication of the report was supported by a $75,000 grant from the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, with additional support from the Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation, an endowment administered by FleetBoston. Last year, the Balfour Foundation presented APARC with a $1 million grant to launch a residency program that brings to BU former African presidents who are committed to democracy and who left office peacefully.

Stith says that former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, who is BU’s first Balfour African President-in-Residence, was instrumental in securing the participation of several African leaders in the new APARC report.

“Understanding Africa’s complexities and potential can only be good for African relations with America, and this report will facilitate the conversation that must take place between Africa’s leaders and America’s leaders,” says Kaunda

http://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2003/02-28/aparc.htm

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