Zambian national team honour plane crash victims

By Peter Auf der Heyde Feb 9, 2012, 19:31 GMT

Libreville - The Zambian national team that will face Ivory Coast in Sunday's Africa Cup of Nations final in Libreville, on Thursday honoured the victims of the 1993 plane crashed which cost all 30 people on board their lives.

A plane carrying the Zambian national team en route to Senegal for a World Cup qualifying match crashed into the sea off the coast of Libreville after refuelling.

Eighteen national team players were amongst those killed in the tragedy.

The Zambian delegation at the 28th Africa Cup of Nations which is being co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, arrived in Libreville on Thursday after playing their first five matches in Equatorial Guinea.

The entire squad, as well as technical staff, on Thursday afternoon drove to Sunset Beach on the outskirts of Libreville, where the plane crashed into the sea 500 metres off the coast.

Led by captain Christopher Katongo and the president of the Zambian football federation, Kalusha Bwalya, the players carried flowers to the water's edge, where they placed them into the water.

In an emotional speech and with tears in his eyes, Bwalya, who was captain of the side at the time, but was not on the plane as he was playing for PSV Eindhoven and had made his own travel arrangements, remembered his dead team-mates.

'I am convinced that our dearly departed brothers that lost their lives here 19 years ago have lent a helping hand in us getting this far.

'In 1993, the Chipolopolo came here to fulfill a promise. They did not succeed, but instead gave up their lives for a gallant cause - the dream to bring glory to our country.

'It is the same cause that brings us here today, the only difference is that we are alive and our former team mates are no longer here.

'I think when we play the match on Sunday, these guys will be looking down on us.

'It has been a long journey to get here and I am grateful that God gave me enough days to come here. It is now up to the new team to make their own history.'

Katongo then led the squad in prayer, afterwards saying that the final on Sunday would be a special occasion.

'It is important not only for me, it is important for the Zambian people. They have been crying for 19 years since the tragedy happened, where we are standing now.

'We had a good team then, they were about to fulfill the people's dreams and then the crash happened, so now we have a chance to fulfill what was denied them,' the striker said.

Zambian coach Herve Renard was also visibly moved as he placed his flower into the water. 'I would so like to win the match against Ivory Coast for all the people who died and for the president Kalusha Bwalya.

'You can see that life is nothing, it is there to be enjoyed and that is what we have to do in the final.

'For us, God gave us this opportunity to win this Africa Cup of Nations in memory of the Zambian national team of 1993,' the Frenchman said.

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