![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/dppmad2.jpg\" "\\"dppmad2\\"")
Machete (panga)-carrying ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Youth Cadets plied\u00a0the streets of Blantyre in open\u00a0trucks Tuesday\u00a0threatening \u201cto deal\u201d with anybody opposing\u00a0government only hours after\u00a0two vehicles belonging to an\u00a0independent private radio\u00a0station were smashed and set\u00a0alight by masked men ahead of Wednesday\u2019s scheduled\u00a0nationwide demonstration\u00a0against government.<\/p>\n
Gospel Kazako, Managing
\nDirector of Zodiak
\nBroadcasting Station (ZBS), told Maravipost.com a ZBS
\noutside broadcast Land Rover
\nvehicle was attacked and had
\nits windows smashed on
\nSaturday while another car
\nbelonging to the same broadcaster was also attacked
\nand set alight on Sunday
\nnight, also by masked men.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to assume
\nwho is behind this,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s becoming difficult to make anything out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kazako, however, stoically
\nsaid in the absence of the
\nreason behind the attacks, his
\nradio station wouldn\u2019t change
\nanything.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no reason to be
\nafraid, we have no reason to
\nbe scared because we don\u2019t
\nknow who is behind these
\nattacks nor their motive.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe don\u2019t think we have enemies among the 13
\nmillion Malawians so we
\nwon\u2019t change anything. Unless
\nthese people are arrested and
\nwe know them, we won\u2019t
\nknow who our enemies are. Our commitment to serve the
\n13 million Malawians with
\nunbiased radio broadcasts
\nremains unshaken.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement issued later
\nTuesday, the six-year-old radio station \u2013 that has won
\nthe hearts and minds of most
\nMalawians because of its
\nprogramming \u2013 said although
\nthe station isn\u2019t aware of who
\nis behind these \u201cbarbaric\u201d criminal acts \u201cthe two
\nmalicious damage attacks bear
\ncommon marks and we can
\nspeculate that they are being
\norganised by a well-resourced
\ncentral command.\u201d<\/p>\n
The radio added: \u201cThe attacks
\nare a direct attack on media
\nfreedom and freedom of
\nexpression guaranteed in the
\nConstitution of the Republic of
\nMalawi.\u201d<\/p>\n
The media rights group, the
\nMedia Institute of Southern
\nAfrica (Misa-MALAWI), also
\ncondemned the twin attacks
\non ZBS, saying: \u201cIt is
\ndisheartening that some people would want to instill
\nfear in media practitioners
\nwho are doing their job
\nprofessionally in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Describing the Malawi media
\nas being \u201cunder siege\u201d the MISA-Malawi statement –
\nsigned by acting chairman
\nAnthony Kasunda \u2013 urged
\nauthorities to step up security
\nof media houses and
\njournalists.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, as we count-
\ndown to anticipated
\ndemonstrations, at least five
\nofficial DPP vehicles carrying
\nthe machete-wielding DPP
\nYouth Cadets \u2013 a youth wing of the ruling party \u2013 were
\nseen driving around the city
\nof Blantyre.<\/p>\n
They stopped in
\nthe middle of the road,
\njumped off the back of the
\nvehicles and sharpened their weapons against the tarmac.<\/p>\n
As they did this, they chanted
\nthe now familiar DPP war-cry
\nin Malawi\u2019s lingua franca,
\nChichewa: \u201cOnyoza boma
\nsagona, timpweteka! (\u201cThose opposing government will
\nnot sleep, we will deal with
\nthem!\u201d)<\/p>\n
The vehicles were the official
\nblue small open pick-up
\nvehicles complete with the DPP insignia.<\/p>\n
Southern Police spokesman
\nDave Chingwalu, when
\ncontacted, expressed surprise
\nat the news of the marauding
\nyouths.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not aware of these youths,\u201d he told
\nMaravipost.com. \u201cLet me
\ninvestigate, I\u2019ll come back to
\nyou.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the armed youths were
\nseen driving past both traffic and general duties police
\nofficers who stood by and
\nwatched.<\/p>\n
At one point a
\nstreet vendor mouthed off
\nsomething against the
\ngovernment. Upon hearing him, the DPP Youth Cadets,
\nlike bees, swarmed him.<\/p>\n
After
\nbeating him up, they left him
\nbleeding and they jumped
\nonto their vehicles and drove
\noff. Nobody was arrested but uniformed police officers
\nwere close to the scene.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Malawi Human
\nRights Commission, the
\nMalawi Council of Churches
\nand the quasi-religious Public Affairs Committee (PAC) have
\nall urged both pro –
\ngovernment supporters and
\nthe demonstrators to exercise
\nrestraint on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe right to freedom of assembly and demonstration
\nis part of the laws of Malawi
\nand part of promotion and
\nrespect of human rights,\u201d read
\nthe statement by the state-
\nfunded MHRC signed by its outspoken chairman John
\nKapito.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a country we
\ncannot afford to take away
\nthese fundamental rights
\nbecause they form part of
\ndemocratic principles and respect for humanity.<\/p>\n
\u201c
\nMalawians plan to hold
\ndemonstrations throughout
\nthe country to protest against
\na myriad of problems
\nbesetting Malawi like persistent fuel and foreign
\nexchange (forex) reserve
\nshortages and what many a
\ncommentator say is a clear
\nslide into dictatorship the
\nMutharika administration.\u2013@ maravipost<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Machete (panga)-carrying ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Youth Cadets plied\u00a0the streets of Blantyre in open\u00a0trucks Tuesday\u00a0threatening \u201cto deal\u201d with anybody […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1005,81],"tags":[1004,465],"class_list":["post-3783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-demonstrations-2","category-national-news","tag-20july","tag-dpp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}