UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
Malawi News Online, 04/19/96

Malawi News Online, 04/19/96

MALAWI NEWS ONLINE / MALAWI NEWS ONLINE / MALAWI NEWS ONLINE

This is an EDITED VERSION of Malawi News Online of19 April 1996
Malawi News Online, a fortnightly update of news from
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Malawi News Online is written by Malawian journalists from their point of view. It is assembled and edited in Copenhagen, Denmark by South Africa Contact (the former anti-apartheid movement), publishers of i'Afrika, a quarterly magazine on Southern Africa.

The fortnightly news updates from Malawi are provided by our established network of journalists in Southern Africa. They will be followed, in the not too distant future, by individual news updates covering other Southern African countries.

Malawi News Online is sent out via a cooperation between South Africa Contact, i'Afrika Magazine and Inform-bbs, the leading alternative information network in Denmark.
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1 WOMEN CRY FOUL OVER BODY SEARCHES

Chairperson of the Society for the Advancement of Women, Catherine Munthali, said women have complained over the treatment they receive from the joint army and police search - code-named Operation Mtendere - launched 29 March following a presidential directive to the army and police to take immediate measures to redress the high rate of crime in the country. She said that security officers in the male-dominated operation were bullying women .

She expressed concern that although the idea for the operation was good, women officers were not involved. "It is an insult and morally unacceptable for a male security officer to search through the body of a women, " said Munthali. She said it was not practical that homes owned by women, and where women lived alone, be searched by men. She said this causes panic among women and was a violation of their rights.

In the clean-up, with door-to-door and road block searches, security officers seize items suspected to have been stolen or confiscate illegal, unlicensed firearms and drugs, as well as arresting suspects. In an incident involving security officers, a 19 year old boy, Andrew Nkaonja was shot and wounded on Good Friday, in Lilongwe and has been flown to South Africa for specialist treatment. The incident happened when Nkaonja and a friend driving in a minibus made a U-turn on the main road as they approached the security men, who then suspected they were fleeing from the search.

2 MALAWI WILL HAVE 800,000 ORPHANS BY 1998

There are between 300,000 and 400,000 orphans in Malawi and this figure will shoot up to 800,000 by 1998, experts say. "This is a serious problem which needs urgent, concerted efforts from all sectors of the community," First Vice-President, Justin Malewezi, said at the launching of an orphan care programme in Lilongwe on 13 April.

The objectives of the $ 5 million programme, which will run for three years, are to reduce the suffering among orphans in the country and to advocate for their rights, growth, survival and protection, as well as co-ordinate assistance.

The programme is formulated by World Vision International, UNICEF and the Ministry of Women and ChildrensYen Affairs, and the Community and Social Welfare Services, also acting as co-ordinators .

Malewezi said the orphan problem in Malawi was exacerbated by the AIDS pandemic. The National AIDS Control Programme says 98% of the population is aware of the existence, dangers and mode of transmission as well as prevention of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Unfortunately, there has been minimal behaviour change. NACP estimates that 28,608 people will die of AIDS in 1996, up from the 23,822 who died in 1995. The majority of those dying from AIDS are from the economically productive age group and they leave behind orphans. Cumulatively, the number of orphans in the country is projected to reach 800,000 in two years and, according to the NACP, some 600,000 more people will have contracted HIV by the year 2,000.

In the absence of orphanages, the responsibility of caring for these orphans is usually left to the aged. Problems can arise in that the aged are less economically productive and some of the children are HIV-positive, requiring extra health care.

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This is what appeared in the MALAWI NEWS ONLINE edition of 19 April 1996.

Feature: ERASING EX-PRESIDENT BANDA'S NAME FROM HISTORY

Articles:
1 WOMEN CRY FOUL OVER BODY SEARCHES
2 MALAWI WILL HAVE 800,000 ORPHANS BY1998
3 NEW CURRENCY WILL BEAR PRESIDENTYenS PORTRAIT
4 TANZANIAN PRESIDENT MKAPA VISITS MALAWI
5 SOUTH AFRICA NOT TO MONOPOLISE TRADE RELATIONS
6 INQUEST INTO DEATH OF FORMER ARMY COMMANDER
7 POLICE INDICTED IN SUFFOCATION DEATHS
8 MALAWI GETS ALL-DIGITAL CELLULAR NETWORK
9 PROBLEMS FOR UNDER-18 NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM

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From: AfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk (Africa_news Network)
Subject: Malawi News
Date: 22 Apr 1996 10:21:10 GMT
Message-Id: <4059102.3018934@inform-bbs.dk>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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