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Vol 38 No 22

Published 7th November 1997


Zambia

Captain Solo speaks

An amateurish coup attempt strengthens the hands of the MMD hardliners

A failed coup attempt by a group of drunken soldiers, on 28 October, made Zambians worry and pitched their political leaders into a familiar shouting match of accusation and counter-accusation. President Frederick Chiluba insists that opposition leaders were behind a plot to overthrow his government. Ex-President Kenneth Kaunda accused the government of stage-managing the coup to crush the opposition. But behind the immediate events are the Chiluba government' s mounting socioeconomic problems as public services break down and only the well-connected few reap any benefits from the government's privatisation and economic liberalisation programme.

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