THE NACHIPANTI SAGA
At 1am in the early hours of 7 th October 2009, the residents of Maplot, Ndirande were rudely awoken by a ghastly incident that had occurred within their midst whereby two women were brutally raped and mutilated whilst a 4 year old child who had the misfortune to witness the rape was murdered by having his head crushed with a rock.
Fortunately, the perpetrator was apprehended by a courageous young man, Innocent Matewere and was handed over to the Police – but only after the community had taken the opportunity to get answers from the assailant.
Since then, there has been little or no communication from the Police and Ndirande has been rocked by violence in which numerous establishments have been attacked and burnt by irate crowds who have engaged in mob justice due to the lack of trust in the official security apparatus.
- Given the rumors of bail, the committee and community leaders may want to get confirmation if it is true that the process to bail the suspects is on or not. If the process is on, we would want to caution judiciary and government not to give the said bail because if bailed out Nachipanti maybe killed by those who sent him and we on behalf of Ndirande people still want to see the big fish on this issue.
People of Ndirande wanted to kill the suspect on the day, we protected him for the sake of justice, and if he is given bail before things are cleared out will people of Ndirande protected another suspect again in future? Strangely people who wanted to kill him on that day were strangers- we suspect they were among the killers and wanted to destroy evidence. We also feel the lawyer and those bailing him may be among them.
We want to caution courts that if any of the suspects are bailed in present circumstance, they should not rely on us, chiefs or faith community to prevent people going on rampage because it may be impossible to do so. We also want to let the police know that we want to be at the courts for the bail and court proceedings. If these people are innocent we want to know and look into their eyes during proceeding. Our being there is part of healing process for the victimized families.
- In other countries the faces of the suspected men and their suspected leader (woman) would come out in the papers. It seems there is more conspiracy and care to protect the dignity of the suspect than that of the victims. In normal circumstances, even the faces of the victims would have come out in papers because some people provide information from that. For example people of Nsanje provided information after seeing the pictures in the Chileka/ Lundu resurrection case.
- Government to date has shown little concern if any, while we acknowledge Police have done some good work. These suspect killers must be kept in custody and the case must be done soon. Some NGOs who helped a little in Ndirande were worried and claimed no funding. They claimed they were more afraid than anything - we would like to know why. We demand that CONGOMA and HRCC give us a list of names of NGOs who have allegedly been working in Ndirande and what they do. We would also want to know the list of donors who are supposed to come out and work with us and the police on issues like these.
- We feel that media have let us down by not reporting this issue of national interest on daily or weekly basic until justice for the victims and our country has been served.
ACTION PLAN
- Following-up Police action and courts proceedings - for news briefing and debriefing.
- Requesting for counseling sessions should start by the help of the Police, NGOs, College Of Medicine, Nurses and Midwives council. To counsel the victimized families and neighbors involved, we would also want to hear from Donors that are active in health and security in Malawi.
- To hold vigils, prayers and ask each Ndirande citizen to donate one kwacha to assist the surviving victims and affected families.
- To send a petition to the State President through the Inspector General of Police or CSOs.
RECORDING OF NAMES, DATE AND INCIDENTS
- Those who died – relative/ parents needing some token/ goodwill assistance. And group counseling sessions.
- Those who survived- what help should be given.
LIST OF INSTITIONS / PEOPLE CONSULTED
- CILIC, HRRC, CHRR, IPI and CONGOMA
- Religious leaders
- MPs
- Affected neighbors and friends
Issued By: Mlanga Village Peace Committee |
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