CSOs remember July 20 victims
The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and the Centre for Development of People (Cedep) have urged Malawians to reflect on the sufferings and blood-shed of July 20 2011 victims who died while protesting against the excesses of the then president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika.
About 20 Malawians, mostly in Mzuzu, were shot down by police officers following running battles between the two camps.
The nationwide demonstrations followed “a shrinking civil and political space … oppressive laws … recklessly passed in Parliament [and as] … alternative views became anathema. Shoot to kill became the vogue-word. Go to hell was the catch-statement. ‘I am not Jesus’ was uttered. ‘We will meet in the streets’ became real, vindicated by panga-brandishing DPP youth cadets in the city of Blantyre”, according to a statement by the two organisations.
The two, in a joint statement signed by Cedep’s Gift Trapence and CHRR’s Timothy Mtambo, urged government to compensate relatives of the victims of the July 20 bloodshed because “most of the families of the victims have lived in abject poverty and suffering”.
CHRR and Cedep also calls on government to extend this to all Malawians who died while fighting for democracy.
“Of course, CHRR and Cedep is cognisant of the fact that former president Joyce Banda, towards the end of her tenure, made a pledge to compensate the families of July 20 heroes after meeting them at the State House. However, a few months down the line, media reports are rife that the pledged money is yet to trickle down to the majority of rightful beneficiaries–a scenario that is very shocking,” the statement reads in part.
They urge President Peter Mutharika and his government to put in place a clear and effective accountable system to monitor and regulate all compensations made to the aggrieved families. n
The CSO have to come out and take responsibility for this tragedy. They organised it against all sober advice, manipulated the protestants and pocketed the funding. I hope they have a co
nscience
man you think as if you snail head. you only need a doctor to test your brain, coz what you are no any sense person can say that. shame on you
Kamba anga mwala, you have the hall marks of a DPP cadet. But whether you like it or not. Your Bingu was a fully tyrant fledged in the post democratic Malawi. We Malawians say “Not again to dictatorship!”