Zambia Schedules Vote Oct. 17 on Multi-Party Government

President Kenneth D. Kaunda said Friday a national referendum on whether to restore multi-party government in Zambia will be held Oct. 17. Hours earlier, security forces closed the University of Zambia and forced about 5,000 students off the campus, witnesses said.

They said that paramilitary police stormed the university campus, beat students and ordered them to pack their bags.

Witnesses said one student was slain, but this could not be confirmed.

Kaunda, visiting the central city of Ndola, said 34 students were detained in the predawn police action after four days of violent protests over food price increases.

“We’ve grown poorer after this action of hooliganism,” a visibly angry Kaunda said in a nationwide television address as he opened a trade fair in Ndola.

Kaunda, who led the British colony of Northern Rhodesia to independence as Zambia in 1964 and imposed a one-party state in 1972, made no mention of casualties in the protests.

The student-led riots began Monday after the government more than doubled the price of cornmeal, Zambia’s staple food, from $2.79 per 55-pound bag to $6.56. The protests spread, becoming the bloodiest urban demonstrations in Zambian history.

At least 23 people were killed, mainly by police and soldiers, and hundreds more were wounded, according to hospital officials and police.

Kaunda blamed the riots on “mischievous” advocates of multi-party government, but he also pledged to allow anyone to campaign for the referendum. His ruling United National Independence Party had agreed in May to hold the vote following demands for Western-style democracy, but it never set a date.

Other African leaders, witnessing the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, have begun political liberalizations.

But Kaunda says he opposes pluralism for fear it will divide tribes and plunge the impoverished landlocked nation of 7.5 million people into conflict.

“If the multi-party system comes to Zambia we will be killing each other,” he said Friday.

Most of Lusaka was calm Friday. Residents returned to work, schools reopened and work gangs cleared rubble and makeshift barricades from roads.