Agissant pour le compte du cabinet d'avocats Dugué & Client de Kirtley, la Alliance de la liberté nationale de Barotseland (BNFA), William Kirtley has published an article concerning Barotseland’s bid for independence from Zambia in the leading Francophone African news magazine Jeune Afrique.
Le roi Mwanawina III de Barotseland et le très honorable Macmillan de Grande-Bretagne (janvier 1960)
L'ancien protectorat britannique de Barotseland willingly chose to become part of Zambie conformément à la Accord de Barotseland 1964, a treaty brokered by the United Kingdom that was intended to preserve Barotseland’s semi-autonomous status within an independent Zambia.
Bien que Kenneth Kaunda, le premier président de la Zambie, signed the treaty himself on behalf of the Government of Northern Rhodesia, he and the Zambian Government would violate every provision of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 commençant peu après l'indépendance de la Zambie, going so far as to modify the Zambian Constitution to remove all references to the Barotseland Agreement 1964, à “annulation” the British act of parliament granting sovereignty to Zambia which referred to the Barotseland Agreement 1964, à l'expropriation du trésor de Barotseland, to changing the name of Barotseland to the generic “Région de l'ouest” and attempting to destroy Barotseland’s previously well-functioning institutions.
Naturellement, dans 2012, la Barotseland National Council voted to accept Zambia’s abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement 1964, with the logical consequence that Barotseland had regained its independence since the treaty by which it freely forged a union with Zambia had ended. Encore, plutôt que d'engager le dialogue, la Zambie a intensifié la répression dans l'ancien protectorat britannique de Barotseland, imprisoning dozens of Barotseland activists on the charge of treason and increasing the police presence in Barotseland while refusing to consider Barotseland’s calls for the peaceful resolution of the issue of Barotseland’s legal status by way of Arbitrage PCA à La Haye.
La source: Jeune Afrique (2014)
À ce jour, environ 10,000 Les représentants de Barotseland ont signé une convention d'arbitrage PCA designed to allow an independent and neutral arbitral tribunal in The Hague to rule upon the status of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 conformément au droit international. President Sata of Zambia has steadfastly refused to sign the PCA arbitration agreement, in an apparent recognition that Zambia’s acts flagrantly violated the treaty.
The article in Jeune Afrique concerning Barotseland’s enlightened attempts to have the issue of its legal status settled by way of PCA arbitration, plutôt que la violence car la Zambie semble chercher, was prepared jointly by the BNFA, William Kirtley, un sociologue français, Koralie Wietrzykowski et Audrey et Christophe Dugué. It may be found online at https://jeuneafrique.com/Article/ARTJAWEB20140606174635/ and is reproduced below.
