Malawi’s former president Bakili Muluzi on Tuesday laughed off accusations that he was trying to topple his successor as his lawyers launched a high court bid to end his house arrest. Muluzi has denied any knowledge of documents which purportedly linked him to a coup against President Bingu wa Mutharika.
Former Malawian president Bakili Muluzi was arrested in connection with an alleged coup plot as he returned home from Britain on Sunday, his lawyer said. Five members of Muluzi’s United Democratic Front and three army generals were arrested last week on suspicion of being part of a plot to bring him to power, and an arrest warrant was issued for Muluzi.
Malawi’s announcement that it had foiled a fourth coup attempt in four years is fuelling suspicions of growing government paranoia and doubts over chances for a political deal crucial to donor funding. The arrest of senior opposition figures over the latest suspected plot has left crisis talks between the government and opposition near collapse.
Malawi has arrested two senior army officers for plotting to overthrow the government, police said on Wednesday, a day after the arrest of two opposition leaders on the same charges. The detentions have left crisis talks between the government and the opposition on the brink of collapse, which threatens to derail vital international donor programmes.
Most of us are multifaceted beings — we expose our different sides in our interaction with different people. Others might have known Ncumisa Kondlo differently, but I was among those who experienced her as an open, lively, engaging, funny, perceptive, determined person.
More than 100 people died in clashes between demonstrators and police in Cameroon last week, a local human rights group said on Wednesday in the absence of an official toll. "We can already say there are more than 100 dead. News comes in to us every day and we are still checking it out," Madeleine Afite of the Maison des Droits de L’Homme said.
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/ 29 February 2008
Cameroon’s main journalists’ union accused the government on Friday of trying to silence media coverage of anti-government riots after police shut down a popular radio station that aired criticism of the president. Magic FM 94, a private radio station in the capital Yaounde, was closed down by armed gendarmes on Thursday.
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/ 18 February 2008
A group of students, artists and workers in Cameroon has formed a movement to oppose President Paul Biya’s plan to reform the Constitution so that he can run for office again, a founder said on Monday. This movement considers that ”no modification of the Constitution can be envisaged before the vote for change scheduled for 2011”.
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/ 20 January 2008
It is no accident that a meeting held to commemorate the life of Yunus Mahomed was attended by scores of luminaries from the African National Congress and the United Democratic Front (UDF). Current and former Cabinet ministers paid tribute to their comrade, who died of a heart attack on January 6.
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/ 10 January 2008
Lawyers for Charles Taylor on Thursday sought to discredit a witness who told the court of the former Liberian president’s ties with Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone, contending that he was biased against Taylor. Defence counsel Courtenay Griffiths stressed that the witness was once one of Taylor’s sworn enemies.
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/ 10 January 2008
Kagiso Trust announced on Thursday the death of its chairperson, Yunus Mahomed. He was 57. He died on Sunday. Kgotso Schoeman, chief executive of Kagiso Trust, said: "Yunus, or YM as he was affectionately known, was a passionate and consistent leader."
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/ 22 December 2007
The Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to extend the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for a year and demanded that all militias and armed groups in the volatile east lay down their weapons and start disarming. The council asked the UN force ”to attach the highest priority to addressing the crisis”.
Brent Meersman reports on the panel discussion, Is Poetry The New Black? which took place at this year’s Cape Town Book Fair