Mtambo calls for an end to Malawi cycle of violence: Slain police officer buried

Fierce rights activist Timothy Mtambo has now turned to President Peter Mutharika to institute a dialogue taskforce to end the current political impasse which on Tuesday claimed a life of a senior police officer in Lilongwe.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday in Lilongwe, the Human Rights Defenders (HRDC) chairperson said the current political impasse calls for political solutions.

“The President should institute a task force for dialogue over the current political impasse,” said the fearless rights activist behind the anti-Jane Ansah protests.

He strongly condemned the brutal  killing of  Police Mobile Service (PMS) Superintendent Usumani Imedi who was clobbered to death by a mob at Msundwe on the outskirts of Lilongwe Cityon Wednesday.

The officer had gone to Nsundwe to pacify a volatile situation when a vigilante group calling itself Nsundwe forces blocked the Lilongwe-Mchinji road.

“Any form of violence should not be tolerated in the country,” said Mtambo.

He also called on the police to refrain from what he called exerting pressure on the arrested suspects, saying they are innocent until proved guilty by a competent court of law.

As Mtambo was speaking in the Capital City, kilometres away at Katuli in Mangochi relatives, the police, the Muslim community and other mourners were burying Imedi.

The killing of Imedi has shocked the nation and Malawians expected all the warring political parties; the government and the opposition to unite in grief and find lasting solutions to the escalating political tension in the country.

According to National Police spokesperson James Kadadzera  Imedi, who was stationed at PMS C Company in Lilongwe and had just completed a two-month leadership and crowd control training course.

Said Kadadzera: “This heinous act has no place in Malawi and as police we condemn it in the strongest terms. We will also investigate this death and all suspects will be taken to court to be prosecuted according to the law.”

Kadadzera said another PMS officer, Superintendent Gani who sustained injuries during anti-Jane Ansah protests in August, died on Tuesday at Kamuzu Central Hospital where he was due to undergo a surgery.

Besides Imedi’s death, one other police officer was injured in the Msundwe fracas.