Zambia army officers and men at Gondar barracks near...

Zambia army officers and men at Gondar barracks near Chipata, a town 569km east of Lusaka, submitted to the Constitutional Review Commission to abolish the death penalty in the laws of Zambia and replace it with life imprisonment.
The submission followed the December 2003 ruling by the Supreme Court which upheld the death sentences handed down to 49 of the 59 soldiers tried for a 1997 abortive coup against then President Frederick Chiluba.
It spared the lives of 10 soldiers because they were not guilty of active participation in the coup. Five of the sentenced soldiers had died while waiting for the appeal, leaving 44 on death row. But, following confirmation of the death sentences, the Zambian government was flooded with calls from civil society and relatives of the convicts seeking executive clemency on the 44 prisoners.
Prominent among the petitioners was former Zambian president, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, who in his time as head of state had pardoned soldiers who participated in abortive coups against his regime in 1982 and again in 1990.