Day: May 2, 2022

BLANTYRE, MALAWI — Free speech advocates in Malawi have condemned the arrest of a nurse for insulting President Lazarus Chakwera during a WhatsApp debate on governance.

Malawi police said 39-year-old Chidawawa Mainje was charged with cyber harassment and faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $2,500 if found guilty.

Mainje was arrested after using an expletive on the instant messaging service about how the president has done nothing to change the lives of people who voted for him.

Police say Mainje’s arrest is in line with the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act 2016, which prohibits insulting someone online.

Harry Namwaza is the deputy spokesperson for the Malawi Police Service.

“You can’t enjoy your freedom or your rights while at the same time you are infringing the rights of others. It doesn’t work like that. There should be a responsibility. So, it’s a criminal offense. That’s why we have arrested him,” Namwaza said.

The nurse’s arrest comes a week after police in the capital, Lilongwe, arrested a 51-year-old man for allegedly insulting the minister of labor in his WhatsApp group post.

Michael Kayiyatsa is the executive director for the rights group, Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation.

He said the arrest is a violation of freedom of expression.

“The guy who was arrested was expressing an opinion which was not favorable to the president. But it’s within his right to express such views, and he is protected by Section 35 of our constitution,” Kayiyatsa said. “So, the best that police should have done is simply to provide advice, but this is somebody expressing their views.”

Kayiyatsa said there is a need for cybercrime legislation to be reviewed and at the same time clarified in some sections, adding that politicians could use the measure to silence dissenting views.

“Especially Section 86, which is talking about offensive communication that needs to be reviewed,” Kayiyatsa said. “And also, there is need for clarity, because in the absence of clarity, such provisions can be abused to target online users, which is worrisome.”

According to Kayiyatsa, more than 15 people have been arrested for contravening the legislation by speaking ill of government officials and associates since Chakwera took power two years ago.

Another human rights activist, Billy Banda of Malawi Watch, said he feels the police are now being used to help shield the current administration from public criticism.

“The police are not entitled in any way to sound like they are protecting one particular individual,” Banda said. “Are the police able to look back? We had the former president, professor Peter Mutharika. He was insulted. He never in any way arrested or directed anybody to be arrested.”

Namwaza said authorities are just reinforcing the law, regardless of one’s status in society.

“Of course, people may have different opinions, but we are bound to ensure that laws are being respected, laws are being enforced,” Namwaza said. “So, we are just doing our job.”

The National Organization of Nurses and Midwives in Malawi warned on Sunday that it would stage a nationwide strike if the police did not release Mainje unconditionally.

The leader of the organization, however, announced later that the group reversed its position, saying it observed that Mainje was making the remarks in his personal capacity and not on behalf of the organization.

In the meantime, police said Mainje is expected to appear in court Wednesday.

Source: Voice of America

BUKAVU, DR CONGO — Fighting between armed groups in Congo’s troubled east has left six dead, just days after a first round of peace talks ended, local sources and a researcher said on Monday.

Clashes in South Kivu province’s Fizi territory on Saturday pitted groups from the Banyamulenge, a Congolese Tutsi community, against an ethnic militia called the Biloze Bishambuke Self-Defence Force, or FABB.

Scores of rebel groups are active in east Congo, many of them a legacy of two regional wars a quarter century ago.

Gady Mukiza, administrative head of Minembwe district, said, “FABB elements reacted to what they considered to be a provocation” by three groups of Banyamulenge forces accused of seizing two villages in a traditionally neutral zone.

In addition to the six killed, several people were wounded, Mukiza said.

Two of the three Banyamulenge groups — the Twirwaneho and Ngumino factions — attended peace talks in Nairobi, Kenya, last week.

Nearly 30 delegates representing a number of armed groups in Ituri and North and South Kivu provinces joined the parley, along with envoys sent by President Felix Tshisekedi.

The five-day session, which ended on Wednesday, is expected to be followed by more talks in the coming weeks.

“The Nairobi meetings unfortunately cannot put a stop to clashes between armed groups on Fizi territory,” said Josaphat Musamba, a researcher at Bukavu’s Institute of Higher Education. “The Congolese state is asking armed groups … to join the disarmament and rehabilitation program,” but in Fizi, groups are battling to “occupy territory.”

Musamba added that FABB was apparently angry it had not been invited to the Nairobi talks.

Millions of people died from violence, disease or starvation in the 1996-1997 and 1998-2003 Congo wars.

The conflict enmeshed countries from around east and central Africa and spawned myriad rebel groups, which typically claim to defend the interests of ethnic communities.

Source: Voice of America

BAMAKO, MALI — Mali’s ruling junta announced Monday it was breaking off from defense accords with its former colonial ruler France, condemning “flagrant violations” of its national sovereignty by the French troops there.

The announcement — threatened several times over the past few weeks — was the latest confirmation of deteriorating relations between the junta in Mali and France.

“For some time now, the government of the Republic of Mali notes with regret a profound deterioration in military cooperation with France,” spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said in a televised statement.

Maiga cited multiple instances of French forces having violated the country’s airspace.

He referred to the June 2021 decision by France to end joint operations with Malian forces.

And he mentioned France’s decision taken in February to pull out its troops from Mali.

The Malian authorities said they had informed Paris of the decision Monday afternoon.

France has not so far issued an official reaction to the junta’s announcement.

Tensions between France and the junta in Mali, which seized power in August 2020, had been rising for some time.

The agreements Mali has ended were those that set the framework for France’s intervention in Mali in 2014.

They were signed a year after French troops deployed a large force to help Mali’s armed forces stop a jihadist offensive there.

France’s relationship with Mali cooled as the junta resisted international pressure to set a timetable for a swift return to democratic, civilian rule.

Paris has also objected to the regime’s rapprochement with the Kremlin.

Both France and the United States have accused mercenaries from the Kremlin-linked security firm Wagner of deploying in Mali, where the junta claims the Russians are just military instructors helping to restore order.

Vast swathes of Mali lie beyond government control because of the jihadist insurgency, which began in 2012 before spreading three years later to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

The military junta seized power in the impoverished and landlocked Sahel state following protests over the government’s handling of the war against the jihadists.

The conflict led to thousands of military and civilian deaths and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

The junta initially promised to restore civilian rule, but it failed to meet an earlier commitment to West African bloc ECOWAS to hold elections in February this year, prompting regional sanctions.

On Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a swift return to civilian rule in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso, all currently ruled by military regimes.

Source: Voice of America