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about the situation within Zambia itself. Information reaching the International Secretariat suggests that up to 100 Zambians may currently be detained under the Preservation of Public Security Regulations. Groups of Namibians and Rhodesians and several individuals of other nationalities are also known to be held as detainees or prohibited immigrants.
Twenty-one such refugees, who had been taken up as investigation cases by Amnesty International after three years in detention without trial, were included among a group of 40 detained Rhodesians who left Zambia in October 1974 in order to accept educational places offered by the British government. Some weeks later, two Europeans whose cases had been taken up by AI were released after having been detained without trial for the greater part of a year. However, two South Africans arrested in early 1974 but subsequently acquitted of espionage charges in the Zambian courts have still not been released.
Other reports reaching AI indicate that the Zambian authorities have con- tinued to allow the use of torture. Various Zambians and prisoners of other nationalities are believed to have been severely tortured during 1974. More recently, the detention and interrogation of suspects in connection with the assassination of the exiled Rhodesian nationalist leader Herbert Chitepo has given rise to serious allegations of abuse and maltreatment.
Accordingly, while welcoming President Kaunda's establishment of an international commission of inquiry into the circumstances of Mr Chitepo's death, AI urged the Zambian President to intervene personally to ensure that suspects receive fair and humane treatment.