Blantyre | Wednesday
AT least seven people were injured on Tuesday when police used ammunition to quell a riot on the university campus in the town of Zomba, witnesses and hospital sources said.
The riot erupted when police tried to break up a protest by dreadlocked Rastafarians, which university students and others had joined.
Scores of people were marching in protest at the mysterious death of Malawian musician Evison Matafale, who died on November 27 while in police custody, said university law lecturer and human rights activist Edge Kanyongolo.
The marching students also had demanded that parliamentarians leave a workshop they were attending at the Chancellor College campus.
Worried that the protesters would attack the lawmakers, police were called in and used tear gas, rubber bullets and live bullets to quell the riot, Kanyongolo said.
The students fought back by throwing stones and other objects, but police managed to escorted the lawmakers to safety.
Two people suffered bullet wounds during the running battles between protesters and police in Zomba, the former colonial capital, 70 kilometers from Blantyre.
One was a student, identified by Kanyongolo as Fanikiso Phiri, who is studying for a degree in education.
”The student’s condition is serious. He needs to undergo an emergency operation to drain blood in his stomach. A live bullet is lodged in his lungs,” said a nurse at a hospital in Zomba.
The other person with a gunshot wound was an onlooker who could not immediately be identified, the nurse said.
The protest on Tuesday marked the first time the Rastafarians have protested against the death of Matafale, a celebrated reggae musician.
The Rastafarians also protested in the commercial capital Blantyre, and in Thyolo and Mulanje districts.
President Bakili Muluzi has ordered a probe into the death of the musician, who was the brother of senior politician Davies Kapito of Muluzi’s ruling United Democratic Front. – Sapa-AFP