Malawi’s new president has wasted no time in firing the country’s police chief in a move described by observers as the start of a “clean-up” of the old guard.
Human rights groups welcomed the decision by Malawian President Joyce Banda, who succeeded former Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika on Saturday after his death from a heart attack.
Police Inspector-General Peter Mukhito, who was appointed by Mutharika two years ago, was accused of instilling a climate of fear involving arbitrary arrests and the shooting dead of 19 people during anti-government protests last year. He was replaced by Lot Dzonzi a day after Banda was sworn in as southern Africa’s first female head of state and only the second on the continent in modern times.
Wapona Kita, a human rights lawyer who has represented Banda in the past, said: “This is what we have been waiting for. We have been looking for a police that are effective and close to the constitution and the respect of human rights.”
Under Mutharika and Mukhito, “we were in a nation of fear. We were not sure what was going to happen each day when we woke up. There were a number of arbitrary arrests and a sustained oppression of human rights,” Kita said.
Kita said he had lunch with Banda after she became president and was left optimistic about the future.
“The human rights climate will definitely improve. There’s a great atmosphere of being free in our country. People can speak their minds and that’s what we were looking forward to,” Kita said.
Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation executive director Undule Mwakasungula echoed his sentiments.
“We had been very worried about the way Peter Mukhito conducted himself,” he said. “He was influenced by politicians and ended up compromising his professionalism. We believe Lot Dzonzi will bring back the old face of the police. We want a police of the people, not a police of the politicians.”
The decisive action represents a positive start for Banda, Mwakasungula said. In July last year, demonstrations over economic and governance issues turned violent, leaving 19 people dead. An investigation by the Malawian human rights commission found that police used live bullets to quell the unrest.
Mike Chipalasa, a spokesman for the commission, said: “From our report, police admitted to killing these people using live bullets. The police image nosedived with these killings and it will take a miracle to restore their image.”
Chipalasa alleged that police also had a hand in the death of Robert Chasowa, a student activist who was found dead at a university campus in Blantyre. Police initially claimed Chasowa had killed himself, but the authenticity of his alleged suicide notes has been questioned.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not