United States impressed with Malawi’s Human rights record.
By Muyanga Ziba
A human rights report for 2006 released by the United States Department of State rates Malawi Government as having generally respected the human rights of its citizens.
Us Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice released the report this week. The report examined more than 190 countries .
“We do not issue these reports because we think ourselves are perfect but rather because we know ourselves to be imperfect, like all human beings, she said adding that their democratic system of governance is accountable .
Britain, France, United States, Germany and many countries suspended financial aid to Malawi in 1992 because of human rights record.
According to reports by Malawi Human Rights Commission, Malawi human rights record has improved for the better compared to days when Malawi had a one party system of government before multiparty elections in 1994..
During that time people were detained without trial .One politician Matchipisa Munthali was detained for 27 years without trial .
Speaking in an interview the Executive Director for Center for Legal Assistance (CELA) Charles Kasambara said it has more than eleven paralegal who visit prisons on a regular basis to ensure every prisoner has access to justice.
He said over 200 prisoners who have been on remand have been visited and some of them have been put on bail.
“There were some murder suspects who were on remand but have now been on bail pending trial. This never happened in the days of one party system under Dr Kamuzu Banda,” he said.
According to the report released by the US State Department there were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.
However the report mentions of Police brutality . The report says police used excessive force and other unlawful techniques in handling criminal suspects.
It says on January 11 a policeman named Nchingula forceda 29 year old man out of a pub and shot him in the legs after discovering that both men were dating the same barmaid. The policeman was reassigned but no further action was taken.
In his reign the state President Dr Bingu Wa Mutahrika has not hanged a single person.
He has not also arrested politicians for challenging him. Rather ,most of the politicians have been arrested because of criminal offences.
Last year Lucious Banda, a politician from the opposition United Democratic Front was arrested for presenting a certificate to the returning officer which was not his.
He has since been acquitted by the High Court.
Malawi records bumper harvests for two consecutive years
By Muyanga Ziba
Malawi is posed to harvest 3,146,398 million tonnes of maize against a requirement of 2 million tonnes to field itself.
Secretary for Agriculture and food security Patrick Kabambe said in an interview the country will have surplus food .
The country will record a surplus thanks to the fertilizer subsidy program implemented by the government which saw fertilizer selling at less than half the market price.
The Ministry of Agriculture says an increase in uptake of 147,000 tonnes of subsidized fertilizer by thousands of small holder farmers has led to an increase for major crops, including maize.
According to Kambambe the harvest could have been larger if Southern Africa had not been lashed with heavy rains.
Malawi met its food needs for the first time in 2006 after harvesting 2.2 million tonnes of maize, which is the staple food.. This was after a series of poor harvests. The food requirement for the country is 2 million tonnes.
The Malawi Government introduced a coupon system in 2006 giving small scale farmers access to buy fertilizer at half the commercial price.
Up to five million people were in need of food aid in 2005 following drought and the government spent over $100 million to import more than 400,000 tons of food to avert hunger, according to Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
Nearly 12 million people in Zimbabwe and Malawi were in need of food emergency in 2005, according to a report published by Food and Agricultural Organisation(FAO) in 2005.
This means the money meant for buying food could now be used in economic development of the country.
Maize prices have been reduced on the markets in Malawi from 7 dollars to 3 dollars because there is much maize on the market because of last year’s surplus.
To ensure there is enough maize government banned exports of maize to other countries but was forced to lift the embargo because many farmers had surplus maize which lacked market and were just rotting in their storage.
Most farmers are now exporting the maize for the first time to Zambia and Tanzania.
Farmers are saving the proceeds from the sales of the maize to buy fertilizer for the 2007/08 season .
In his remarks on Sunday this week President of Malawi Dr Bingu Wa Mutharika told the parliamentarians that the country has attained food sufficiency saying he has started achieving his goal of wiping hunger completely out of the country.
He said the farmers will still buy fertilizers at half the price to ensure the country records another surplus in 2008.
Malawi had a bumper harvest last in 1999 when free fertilizer and seeds were distributed to million of villagers.
The Government has also introduced winter cropping in most of the 27 districts of the country where farmers grow throughout the year.
ENDS
France to cancel $9million debt Malawi owns
By Muyanga Ziba
France will this year cancel $9 million Malawi owns that country,The French Ambassador to Malawi and Zambia Francis Saudubray .
This is after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank cancelled Malawi’s debt amounting to US$2.968 billion following the country’s completion point under the enhanced heavily debted poor countries (HIPC)) initiative.
After the cancellation of this debt the government creditors in the Paris club also cancelled a round US$3billion in October last year.
Francis Saudubray said France is impressed with the way the government of Dr Bingu Wa Mutharika has been managing the economy saying Malawi’s macro economic conditions have improved considerably hence the debt cancellation .
He said Malawi and France will sign an agreement between June and November this year.
He said France expects the resources to go to the mining and conservation of the environment.
These debt cancellations have brought relief to the southern African counrty where over 50 percent live below the poverty line.
Malawi was paying the debt s annually.
According to Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN),Malawi has been spending 25 percent of its budget on debt servicing.
Addressing the nation after the creditors cancelled the debts last year Malawi’s leader Dr Bingu Wa Mutharika said the country would be saving over US$110 which it was repaying to its creditor.
He said the money would be used in alleviating poverty adding that it would be used in the sectors such as education,health, agriculture and other social projects.
The president has invested much of his political credibility in getting on good terms with foreign creditor and international financial institutions in great contrast to his predecessor.
Dr Bingu Wa Mutharika’s policies have been hailed by the Paris Club which now says Malawi is now committed to allocate the resources freed by the present treatment of the debt to priority areas.
The write offs have already improved the country’s balance of payments which has always been in red.
It will also improve donor and investor preceptions.
The country accumulated the debt from the time in attained independence from Britain in 1964.
It was paying the money equivalent to the national budgets of Agriculture,Education and Health which in Malawi are big budgets as government allocates a lot of money.
The majority of Malawians who have been paying the external debt through taxes were not born when the debts started accumulating
The Opposition parties, Malawi Congress Party and United Democratic Front have hailed government for the debt cancellation but have cautioned it to use money properly for people in Malawi to benefit.