{"id":4121,"date":"2011-07-22T12:52:54","date_gmt":"2011-07-22T12:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=4121"},"modified":"2011-07-22T12:52:54","modified_gmt":"2011-07-22T12:52:54","slug":"malawis-bingu-wa-mutharika-stops-protesters-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/22\/malawis-bingu-wa-mutharika-stops-protesters-funeral\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi&#8217;s Bingu wa Mutharika stops protesters&#8217; funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p id=\"story_continues_1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4122\" title=\"mw\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/mw3-300x185.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"185\" \/>The authorities in Malawi have halted the mass funeral of seven protesters who were killed during this week&#8217;s anti-government protests.<\/p>\n<p>President Bingu wa Mutharika ordered the Mzuzu city council to stop the funerals to avoid further unrest.<\/p>\n<p>At least 18 people have died, many reportedly shot by police, in nationwide demonstrations.<\/p>\n<p>Protesters accuse Mr Mutharika of plunging Malawi into its worst economic crisis since independence.<\/p>\n<p>After the funerals were blocked, religious leaders and civil society members agreed to hold the funeral at the Heroes Acre in the northern city of Mzuzu.<\/p>\n<p>But the head of Mzuzu&#8217;s council said the protesters could not be buried at the Heroes Acre because they were looters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have been stopped by the government with our arrangements to bury the seven heroes,&#8221; Moses Mkandawire, director of the Church and Society rights group, told AFP news agency.<\/p>\n<p>Graves had already been dug at Zolzolo cemetery and mourners had started gathering when the funerals were blocked, AFP reports.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mkandawire said the government itself had promised to arrange transportation for the bodies.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the mourners insist they must bury their dead at the city&#8217;s Heroes Acre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The authorities in Malawi have halted the mass funeral of seven protesters who were killed during this week&#8217;s anti-government protests. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1005,274],"tags":[1004,258],"class_list":["post-4121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-demonstrations-2","category-dpp-3","tag-20july","tag-malawi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121","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=4121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121\/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=4121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}