PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Malawi's efforts at normalising relations with donors dominate headlines
Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - Malawi's uphill efforts to normalise relationship with Western donors dominated the headlines this week.
"Obama Asked To Take Malawi Out Of ICC" was the headline in The Nation, quoting a letter from US Republican Congressman Frank Wolf as urging President Barack Obama to remove Malawi from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCC) following the southern African country's hosting of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and failure to arrest him.
"It is unconscionable that American tax dollars are going to a country that openly allows someone like Bashir to visit," the daily quoted Wolf's letter to Obama as saying.
Under the headline: "Obama Asked To Punish Malawi", The Daily Times quoted Wolf as saying he personally visited Sudan and saw for himself atrocities committed by the al-Bashir administration in the western region of Darfur.
"If funding for Malawi is not cancelled, the MCC will be complicit in aiding a genocidal government and should completely shut down," the daily quoted Wolf as saying in the letter to Obama, which was copied to Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has a warrant against al-Bashir following the death of 300,000 Darfuris. Malawi, as a signatory of the Rome Convention that set up ICC, is obligated to facilitate the indictment of any ICC inductee. The Hague-based court therefore wrote Malawi to explain why Lilongwe let al-Bashir scot-free.
However, Malawi Government spokesman Patricia Kaliati, who is also Information Minister, told The Nation the Sudanese leader was in Malawi not as a Malawi Government guest but as a Common Market for the Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) delegate.
Kaliati also said the international fugitive has visited Kenya, Uganda and South Africa but was never arrested, as she wondered in a widely-quoted comment in the media: "They know where he lives, why can't they arrest him themselves?"
Al-Bashir visited Malawi to attend the trade summit but a fringe protest by activists hogged the headlines.
"Activists Freed" was the headline in The Nation, reporting on the release on bail of four human rights activists who were arrested for staging a protest against President Bingu wa Mutharika's dictatorial tendencies during the COMESA summit.
It seems American dollars were the in-thing this week for Malawi headline writers.
"US Ties K60bn Aid To Human Rights" was the headline in The Daily Times, quoting the newly-accredited US Ambassador to Malawi, Colonel Jeanine Jackson as saying the suspended US $350.7m MCC energy fund can be unlocked if Malawi improved on human rights and good governance.
Washington suspended the MCC funds for Malawi after police shot dead 20 unarmed protestors during the unprecedented July 20 demonstrations.
The week also saw headlines about Malawi's frantic efforts to normalise relationship with Great Britain, whose envoy was expelled in April after a diplomatic cable, where he branded President Bingu wa Mutharika as "increasingly becoming autocratic and intolerant of criticism," leaked to the media.
A high-level ministerial delegation, led by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mutharika held talks in London with Foreign Secretary William Hague.
-0- PANA RT/BOS 22Oct2011
"Obama Asked To Take Malawi Out Of ICC" was the headline in The Nation, quoting a letter from US Republican Congressman Frank Wolf as urging President Barack Obama to remove Malawi from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCC) following the southern African country's hosting of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and failure to arrest him.
"It is unconscionable that American tax dollars are going to a country that openly allows someone like Bashir to visit," the daily quoted Wolf's letter to Obama as saying.
Under the headline: "Obama Asked To Punish Malawi", The Daily Times quoted Wolf as saying he personally visited Sudan and saw for himself atrocities committed by the al-Bashir administration in the western region of Darfur.
"If funding for Malawi is not cancelled, the MCC will be complicit in aiding a genocidal government and should completely shut down," the daily quoted Wolf as saying in the letter to Obama, which was copied to Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has a warrant against al-Bashir following the death of 300,000 Darfuris. Malawi, as a signatory of the Rome Convention that set up ICC, is obligated to facilitate the indictment of any ICC inductee. The Hague-based court therefore wrote Malawi to explain why Lilongwe let al-Bashir scot-free.
However, Malawi Government spokesman Patricia Kaliati, who is also Information Minister, told The Nation the Sudanese leader was in Malawi not as a Malawi Government guest but as a Common Market for the Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) delegate.
Kaliati also said the international fugitive has visited Kenya, Uganda and South Africa but was never arrested, as she wondered in a widely-quoted comment in the media: "They know where he lives, why can't they arrest him themselves?"
Al-Bashir visited Malawi to attend the trade summit but a fringe protest by activists hogged the headlines.
"Activists Freed" was the headline in The Nation, reporting on the release on bail of four human rights activists who were arrested for staging a protest against President Bingu wa Mutharika's dictatorial tendencies during the COMESA summit.
It seems American dollars were the in-thing this week for Malawi headline writers.
"US Ties K60bn Aid To Human Rights" was the headline in The Daily Times, quoting the newly-accredited US Ambassador to Malawi, Colonel Jeanine Jackson as saying the suspended US $350.7m MCC energy fund can be unlocked if Malawi improved on human rights and good governance.
Washington suspended the MCC funds for Malawi after police shot dead 20 unarmed protestors during the unprecedented July 20 demonstrations.
The week also saw headlines about Malawi's frantic efforts to normalise relationship with Great Britain, whose envoy was expelled in April after a diplomatic cable, where he branded President Bingu wa Mutharika as "increasingly becoming autocratic and intolerant of criticism," leaked to the media.
A high-level ministerial delegation, led by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mutharika held talks in London with Foreign Secretary William Hague.
-0- PANA RT/BOS 22Oct2011
