Former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda has begun a hunger strike following his arrest in the capital, Lusaka, on Thursday, South African radio reported.

A spokesman for Kaunda's United National Independence Party (UNIP), Muhabi Lungu, visited him in prison on Thursday and said Kaunda was refusing to eat or drink.

"Kaunda has refused to take any of the food we supplied to him," he said, in remarks broadcast by the radio.

"He's refused to take even the water that we supplied to him and he is effectively going on a hunger strike until he is taken to a court of law and charged, until he is given the reasons and grounds for his detention in a court of law," Lungu said.

He described Kamwala prison, where Kaunda is being detained, as "rat-infested and unfit for human habitation" the radio said.

He said a government list of UNIP members to be detained in the next few days has been circulated in Zambia, and that it includes Kaunda's son, Wezi, the radio reported.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
 

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