Malawi needs God’s intervention, says Catholic Bishop

Catholic Church Archbishop of Lilongwe Diocese, His Grace Tarcisius Ziyaye has condemned the killing of albinos, saying Malawi as a God fearing nation, need to respect human life.

Speaking when he presided over an Open day for Malawi Primary Justice organised by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) on Thursday Ziyaye said killing of albinos is evil and must be condemned.

“Malawians are known to be God fearing people, and killing albinos is a sin and as Catholic church, we condemn it in strongest terms,” he said, adding “we have to pray, we need God’s intervention to stop this act.”

Archbishop Ziyaye said the devil is leading people to do such brutal acts and as for Malawians who are also well known for good morals and values killing is degrading their good principles of humanity.

“Why have we reached this extent of killing one another, because we want to get rich?  Why are we behaving like animals? Where is this behaviour of killing albinos coming from? When we had albinos’s all along?” said a visibly concerned Ziyaye.

He then called on government to ensure that that all perpetrators should be given a stiffer punishment and all people involved in the killings should repent and seek Gods’ favour.

Commenting on the Malawi Primary Justice which the Church is conducting through CCJP, Ziyaye said primary justice is important because it has increased access to justice for vulnerable groups and strengthened the capacity of village tribunals to ensure effectiveness and efficiency on dispensing justice.

“In communities, people especially women and widows are sometimes oppressed and don’t have access to justice because they have nothing to offer to chiefs but since the programme started, chiefs now have knowledge on how to handle cases without oppressing others,” he said.

Speaking at the same function, Mchinji First Grade Magistrate Rodwell Meja Phiri said since the  programme started, there has been a reduction in case overload at the court since all minor cases are handled at community level.

Mchinji District Commissioner Richard Hara said there is an increased knowledge among chiefs and members of tribunals on case handling and basic introduction to some legal documents such as the constitution, women rights and prevention of domestic violence.

He then called on CCJP to scale up the project to other traditional authorities in the district.

CCJP with funding from DFID launched the Primary Justice project in Five traditional authorities in Mchinji in 2012 and the programme will phase  out in 2016.

The project main goal is to improve access to justice for poor people in particular women and children through improving quality and accessibility of primary justice systems.

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