Chilima warns against Malawi violence developing into genocidal proportions
Vice President Saulos Chilima has spoken against what he calls political thuggery in the country, saying it threatens the stability and that State-sponsored violence has the potential to spark civil war or sliding into “genocide”.
Chilima told a news conference on Monday that President Peter Mutharika’s political ideology revolves around violence and tribal hegemony.
“Yesterday, they destroyed [Malawi Electoral Commission] MEC’s equipment, tomorrow they will destroy your houses. Yesterday, they hacked UTM supporters and monitors in Mulanje, tomorrow they will hack anyone who does not speak their language.
“Yesterday they torched a UTM car, tomorrow they will torch any car bearing the registration number of a district they do not like. This is how civil wars and genocide begin: lack of tolerance and use of violence to settle political scores plus a dosage of leadership foolishness and arrogance,” said Chilima.
Chilima said Malawians of all tribes are suffering together in the country and should not let the political violence develop into genocidal proportions.
“As I have said before, there is no Chewa suffering or Lhomwe poverty. There is no Tumbuka hunger or Ngoni pain. There is no Sena indigence or Yao destitution,” said Chilima.
He said despite belonging to different tribes, Malawians are one people paying allegiance to the same flag.
“We must embrace our diversity and celebrate the plurality of our cultural practices. We are a garden full of flowers of different colours. Our beauty is in our diversity. Our diversity must be a source of strength and not weakness.
“We must also remind ourselves that this unity and peace that we enjoy must not be taken for granted. No matter our political affiliation, we must firmly reject attempts by some political leaders or party supporters to consolidate their support by stocking societal tensions or tribal divisions. This is simply irresponsible and dangerous and must be condemned in the strongest terms,” said Chilima.
Malawi is preparing a fresh presidential elections slated for July 2 2020 subjected to Supreme Court of Appeal ruling.
Ahead of the elections the ugly face of political violence has started rearing its head.
Chilima said violence and intimidation is a form of vote rigging.
“Violence and intimidation is used by unpopular politicians to stop others from effectively campaigning and canvassing for votes, thereby denying voters the choice they desperately need. Violence and intimidation is used by undemocratic and unprogressive tribal parties as the DPP to create a climate of fear for everyone because they know they cannot fairly compete and win,” he said.
Chilima said the DPP shall fail to subvert the will of Malawians in the fresh vote “because good overcomes evil” and that Malawians are made of “sterner stuff.”
He also said it is also very reckless and myopic for the DPP to use terror and intimidation to try to rig this election.
“The continent of Africa is replete with sad examples of how corrupt and inept leaders tried to use violence and intimidation to remain perpetually in power only to set their countries alight with uncontrollable violence and civil war.
“We must never ever play with fire. We must never take this peace we enjoy in this country for granted. It is simply silly and irresponsible,” he said.
Chilima asked President Mutharika to stop the violence which he alleged is perpetrated by his “surrogates” to avoid people witnessing chaos similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and other hotspots in Africa and elsewhere,
Said Chilima: “You swore to defend the Constitution and protect Malawians. You must rise to your constitutional duties.”
He said Malawi send soldiers on peacekeeping missions in DRC and other places where many fellow Africans are suffering because of civil wars.
Chilima said it is “completely senseless and nonsensical”, for anyone no matter who they are to attempt to use such a well-respected breed of soldiers to unleash terror on their own fellow citizens.
“Again, this attempt shall fail miserably as we believe that our soldiers shall protect the lives of their fellow Malawians as they do to those of the Congolese,” said Chilima.
Government is yet to respond to Chilima’s statements.
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Chirima is a crook just like Mtambo and Chakwera they are busy creating sines .Some enemies are within their alliance and a lot of people who had their property destroyed.MCP waishosha dala.He wanted to see a lion ,he is going to see it now.
What do you think would have been the consequences of your actions with HRDC? Peace? You are immature and naive
Za ziiii. Always CRITICISING
Violence is not acceptable and congratulations SKC for condemning it. But Mr VP, are you only seeing the bad side of violence now when in fact you spent months with Timothy and Pastro Chakwera leading violent and damaging demonstrations that destroyed so many businesses? You even called them peaceful and said people were exercising their rights, seriously? Businesses, lage companies and small traders lost millions and millions and you did not see anything wrong?
It is this exact behaviour of yours that is worrisome, everything is all about you and you care very little about others until you are directly affected and that is only when you spring up and start using the words genocide? I am actually happy if you report these matters to the International Criminal Court (ICC), they should punish the DPP thugs and also get testimony from you and your friends on how peaceful demonstrations led to loss of billions and some lives. There are many videos of you dressed up in militia attire leading violent demonstrations, I hope you will be called to the stand and answer key questions: Did you not see the violence as you were leading your crusade? What did you do about it?
Some of us are tired of you politicians, we just want a peaceful Malawi back, even if it is without all of you politicians.
The head of Arafat Hamdani aka Zeze is so full of violence. I heard him with my own ears saying “Nthawi imene ine, aChakwera ndi HRDC timachita ziwawa…” Oh sorry timachita zionetsero. My take: timachita zionetsero za ziwawa. Very stupid! The burnt, broke and looted Lilongwe, Mzuzu, Karonga etc. Only Blantyre did not allow them to do this nonsense that Zeze is priding about. In fact one of these dunderheads was shown nyenyezi dzuwa likuswa mtengo.
Someone has to say it when nobody dares. Chilima, regardless of what happens after July, you will always have my respect for standing up for the truth and the vulnerable masses. Saluting you Sir !
DPP ikulira , they are bad losers, and they know for sure that their days in government are numbered….
Kwa a Malawi wonse akufuna kwabwino pempho langa ndi ili, masiku amdima wa DPP atsala wowelengeka ndipo dziko lowala where every citizen will be treated equally and the rule of law respected by everyone is coming.
DPP’s plan is to intensify these attacks so that when the opposition retaliates, then APM should declare a state of emergency to stop the elections. Lockdown has failed to save them now they are using violence.
So my plea to the opposition is to avoid retaliation. And on Election Day do not fear but come out in large numbers to vote out this lomwe evil government.
And Once the people’s alliance is elected into government in July you will see the following things happening,….
30 day amnesty to all those who embezzled taxpayers money through all forms of cash gates during the past 25 years.
30 day amnesty to all Principal Secretaries to reveal the total number and names of all ghost workers within their ministry payrolls.
30 day amnesty to all MBC DPP cadet journalists to resign in order to make sure that MBC becomes apolitical
30 day amnesty to all DPP cadet police officers to resign to make sure the police force can serve all Malawians regardless of political affiliation.
7 days dateline to the police to investigate and charge all the police officers who raped and sexually abused women in msundwe.
7 days dateline to the police to arrest and charge the killers of Robert Chasowa.
All the money recovered from cashgates and ghost workers will be put in a special account to turbocharge the economy with the aim of creating 1 million new jobs.
Within the first month of taking government, the alliance will launch several public commission of inquiries to investigate the following,
– the murder of Mr Njauju
– the generator and fuel saga at Escom
– The maizegate at Admarc
– The K5 billion youth loan scheme
– The registering for underage voters by MEC
– The police ration scandal that so APM returning K145 million back to the so called good will donor.
– How the coronavirus fund have been used and under whose orders was Beam awarded K1 billion
– The government school land sale saga including the sale of the Livimbo land.
– etc
The Problem is you only see violence as an issue when Ur supporters get on the receiving end. When pro govt supporters r beaten up, hacked to death and have their Bussinesses burnt down, you deliberately pay a blind eye , and play deaf. So who is to blame? As Leaders, you shld be condemning ( in strongest terms) any kind of violence regardless of who a victim is.
Well spoken my VP! Somewhere in this country there are two old people above the age of 75 who instead of being statesmen for the position that one is holding and the other one held, they have resorted to keeping power in one region. Probably they are afraid of the corruption that they have been involved in or it’s just pure greed but they will be surprised in July this year! Power is going to the Center! We cannot have two families ruling Malawi as if this is a chieftaincy! We cannot have one region rule Malawi since 1994! It’s time for other people or regions to rule Malawi. Southerners…just know that Malawi belongs to all and resist the imperialist tendency of thinking only you should rule Malawi. Southerners have had 26 years of ruling Malawi and look what we have achieved: regionalism and Quota system basi!
True – if they continue Malawi soldiers need to intervene. We have no choice but reject senseless.
A Chilima mwaona kuyipa kwa violence lero. Inu, Chakwela ndi Mtambo you were doing the same in the name of demos ndikumavala ma T/shirt “osaopa” and you thought you would achieve what you want. You could not mind about loss of lives and property. Chilima and Chakwela simungakwanise ndale za pa malawi, mwachepa nazo. Ask John Tembo.
Za mkutu basi,tayakhula zomveka
Problem of conducting press briefing while drunk. Where were you when someone residents of area 25 whose cars had reg numbers like TO, PE, ZA, were forced to hide their cars?
The violence you orchestrated the past 9 months you never saw as wrong doings? they are the same violence you stated baba chilima
FOTSEKI. You and Chakwera are the ones who unleashed genocidal acts. The two of you are from the central region and have been terrorising people from the central region.
Where were you when Chakwera was telling his MCP boys to terrorise people from the South. We, people from the south have suffered in the central region because of you, Chilima and Chakwera.
APM seems to be a diabolic tactician! When he tried to unleash his notorious DPP cadets against the post-election protests, the MDF stood in the way of his ‘tribal warriors’. He assessed the situation and concluded that General Nundwe was the problem. So he made his ‘chess’ cunning move and in subtle fashion ‘removed’ the ‘obstacle’ to his ‘cadetal’ terror tactics which as all know probably by now was in the form of the ‘dismissed’ popular and well-respected MDF General. Guess who he replaced this ‘obstacle’ with? Your guess is as good as mine. Now these recent ‘tactics’ of ‘tribal’ violence, I guess is likely to be met with the kind of indifference as has been reminiscent with our DPP Malawi Police Service! Why? One of many suggested answers that could score good marks should be, “REMOVAL/ DISMISSAL OF GENERAL NUNDWE”. But thank GOD if subtle and cruel characters like President AL-Bashir of Sudan have failed to hold onto ‘dear’ power in spite of having the backing of a whole powerful army, there is hope for Malawi that no matter what forces will be used in support of tribalistic and ethnic leadership of ‘divide-and-rule’ THE SPIRIT OF UNITY embedded in our national anthem will prevail. Now it may be understood why the late president Bingu attempted to convince Malawians to get rid of the Malawi Original Flag as well as eradicate the national anthem. Thank God all such attempts were eventually defeated. May God make all other evil attempts to divide Malawi into tribal warlords to be defeated and fail too!!!!
Mawu apose apa popeza alomwe ndi mbuli zokha zokha tikumasulirani zomwe wanena SKC
Chilima is faning the flames deliberately. This should not be condoned coming from one of our leaders. He is promoting hatred against dpp instead of promoting unity and dialogue. This is the worst politician in the world for he would let the country burn just for him to ascend to power. This dude is dark to the bone
Bwana,
Your written speeches are rich with wisdom, however, your presentation style spoils it all. You become emotional and that is dangerous for a leader. Anger management is required sir. Otherwise, you can improve in that area. 2024 you will be fully mature to lead Malawi. Arguably, you are going through grooming period. Don’t rush to be President now.
Says the man that condoned violence for a whole year in the name of demonstrations. fotsek wena! Hamba!
The Nepotistic Muntharika made you Vice President you that was a pauper and piss poor, You mkaladi with no tribe.