Malawi police kill two
20/04/2004 15:57  - (SA)  

Print article   email story

Blantyre - Police in southern Malawi on Monday shot dead two opposition supporters who hurled stones at a police station after a fellow sympathiser died in detention, an opposition party spokesperson said on Tuesday.

"I confirm that two people were killed in the fracas," police spokesman Willie Mwaluka told reporters.

He said the police arrested a man for being drunk in public on Sunday and that he committed suicide in detention on Monday by "apparently hanging himself using pieces of his clothing".

But an opposition official said the police arrested the man for chanting anti-government slogans and proclaiming that Gwanda Chakuamba, presidential candidate for the Mgwirizano, or Unity, Coalition, would be elected president in the May 18 elections.

Tortured until he died

"He was tortured by police until he died," said Silas Kanjere, of the Republican opposition party.

After hearing of his death, youths threw stones at the police station and looted houses, shops and a department store in the small town of Nsanje in southern Malawi, Mwaluka said.

Kanjere said the youths attacked the police station to protest against the death of their fellow opposition supporter and that the police "opened fire using live bullets to disperse the crowd and killed our men".

Political tensions are high in the district, which borders Mozambique, Kanjere added. Riot police often use live bullets to disperse demonstrators.

	Discussion Forums |		Newsletters |		Photo Galleries |		Earlier stories