Fury over brutality

By Leah Malekano:

In one of the most chilling scenes of a clampdown of peaceful demonstrations in Malawi, agents of terror wrench Silvester Namiwa, one of the lead organisers of the protests in Lilongwe on Thursday, from a group of police and MDF officers he had squeezed himself into for safety from the marauding thugs.

With Namiwa in their grip, the hooligans exact corporal punishment — raining whips, kicks and all manner of battering on him while the security officers watched.

This terror is the seventh episode Malawi has seen since September 2023 — the kind where hooligans armed with every crude implement have crushed a democratic right to peaceful anti-government protests and hacked demonstrators yet the law enforcers have not acted.

This latest incident has attracted an avalanche of condemnation, with particular criticism directed toward security forces for not protecting citizens from these lawless agents.

The Malawi Law Society has described this as “not an isolated incident”.

“Violence has repeatedly been unleashed against those who have sought to exercise their right to freedom of assembly and other allied rights, most of which has been in full view of the state machinery,” reads the statement, released on Thursday evening.

It adds: “The Society considers this inaction by the State and its security agents, which has in some instances been accompanied by cosmetic action, to be a calculated suppression of the right to freedom of assembly enshrined under section 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi (Constitution).”

The lawyers’ body has since asked President Lazarus Chakwera to sack Inspector General of Police Meryln Yolamu and Minister of Homeland Security Ezekiel Ching’oma following the brutal attacks on rights activists, journalists and protesters in Lilongwe on Thursday.

In the statement, co-signed by chairman Davis Njobvu and honorary secretary Francis M’mame, Malawi Law Society says the attacks raise serious questions about the competence and impartiality of the Inspector General.

The society calls the incident “brutal, especially happening under the watch of the security agents”.

It argues that Yolamu and Ching’oma failed to motivate and direct their charges to control the situation.

“The Society notes that under Section 153(4) of the Constitution, the Minister is responsible for ensuring that the discipline and conduct of the Malawi Police Service accord with prescriptions of the Constitution, a responsibility that the Minister has demonstrably failed to uphold,” says the statement.

Public Affairs Committee (Pac) has also expressed revulsion for the crackdown, with the body’s spokesperson Bishop Gilford Matonga condemning the silence and inaction of the two security agencies.

He said their inaction is disturbing and lends itself to the conclusion that these panga-wielding thugs are agents of some political authorities.

Malawi Council of Churches (MCC), an ecumenical body of 32 Christian Churches in Malawi, has also condemned the Thursday brutalisation of protestors as “barbaric and cowardly”.

“The brutality witnessed— ranging from the vicious assault on unarmed citizens to the burning of their vehicles— constitutes a grave violation of human rights and a blatant attack on Malawi’s democratic fabric.

“What is even more disturbing is that this heinous violence occurred in full view of the Malawi Police Service and Malawi Defence Forces, whose officers stood by and did nothing to protect innocent citizens,” it says in a statement released Friday.

The body says it is “deeply outraged by this gross dereliction of duty” and describes the inaction of the security forces as “a betrayal of the public trust and a stain on [their] constitutional mandate.”

“We wish to be absolutely clear: the pattern of selective enforcement and impunity for pro-government thugs suggests, beyond reasonable doubt, that these acts are being tolerated— if not orchestrated—by elements within the governing party.

“If the so-called ‘panga team’ had been affiliated with the opposition, we are convinced that arrests would have been swift and ruthless.

“The continued failure to bring these assailants to justice points directly to political protection from the highest levels of power in the governing party,” says MCC.

The religious body says it rejects the narrative that violence is justified simply because a demonstration may have been organised by opposition voices.

“The government has a non-negotiable fiduciary obligation to ensure that security agencies act impartially and in the interest of all Malawians, not as instruments of intimidation for political gain,” it says.

Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) also said yesterday that the attacks on peaceful demonstrators are a serious threat to democracy.

Speaking at a press briefing in Lilongwe Friday, MHRC chairperson Chikondi Chijozi said police failed to protect the demonstrators even though the protest was legal.

MHRC said the silence from the police is making people lose trust in the system.

Former president Bakili Muluzi also joined the fray Friday, describing the harassment of protestors on Thursday as unacceptable.

Muluzi took the police and the MDF to task.

He said they are trained to protect and serve the public, not to enable violence or remain passive in the face of brutality.

He said that violence is “a grave affront to human dignity and the rule of law” and demanded accountability for the perpetrators.”

“As a former Head of State, I am deeply concerned about the implications of this incident on our democracy and human rights record,” Muluzi said.

He said that Malawi’s security forces have a constitutional duty to protect citizens during peaceful assemblies, not to “stand idly by” while violence unfolds.

“If the police were unable to protect the lives and property of demonstrators, what was their purpose for being there?” Muluzi questioned.

“I urge relevant authorities to investigate both the attackers and the security forces’ inaction, and to ensure justice is served.”

Police inaction on these thugs was a highly charged topic at last month’s all-inclusive stakeholder conference which Public Affairs Committee held in Blantyre.

Civil society leaders, opposition political parties and others demanded answers from the police why they had failed to make arrests in relation to previous incidences despite the thugs being known to them.

In her response to some of the concerns, Yolamu said: “We investigated, some people were arrested and others are currently on bail. And let me just be open, the office of the IG belongs to Malawians and you can come to demand information.”

In an earlier response at a conference where these concerns were also raised, Yolamu said: “I know people have lost trust in the Police and it’s not just here, this is the case in many countries, why, because of constant interaction it has with the members of the general public, but I have done my best.”

Innocent Mphongolo and Jimmy Chazama contributed to this report