Armed police have besieged Malawi’s university in Zomba, patrolling the campus after a student protest, as well as main roads and selected points in the sleepy town, police and residents said on Tuesday.
Police representative George Chikowi said the large police presence was for ”crime prevention because of these stubborn students from the university studying political science”.
Chikowi could not give the number of policemen deployed, but some residents of Zomba, 70km from Blantyre, estimated there were more than 100.
Chikowi said the police action followed a student sit-in last week to protest against a controversial proposed amendment of a bill that would allow President Bakili Muluzi to stand for a third
term in 2004.
Political science studies at the university, seen as the country’s political hotbed, were only reintroduced after the country’s democratic elections in 1994, after being banned during the reign of dictator Kamuzu Banda.
”It’s quite a spectacular show to see such a large number of policemen guarding every major building and being all over,” one resident said.
Three roadblocks leading to the university campus, on the outskirts of the town, have been erected and people and vehicles were being searched before being allowed through.
The students are in solidarity with churches and
non-governmental organisations spearheading the anti-third term bid.
”The large police presence is unprecedented for such a small town. It has never happened before and residents are scared about it,” Wiseman Chijere Chirwa, political scientist at the university
of Malawi, said.
Chirwa said the police presence in this former colonial capital city increased on Tuesday with more policemen deployed at various strategic point including the university campus.
”Zomba has become a potentially volatile place to live in. Every major building is guarded. Policemen move in groups of four or 10,” said one resident. – Sapa-AFP