GOVERNMENT HITS BACK AT IMPEACHMENT SUPPORTERS

UNCLAS LILONGWE 000971

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/S MELINDA TABLER-STONE
STATE FOR INR/AA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: MI PGOV KPOL
SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT HITS BACK AT IMPEACHMENT SUPPORTERS


1. (SBU) A number of opposition politicians have been
arrested over the past two weeks in retaliation for their
support of the effort to impeachment President Mutharika.
While the arrests are apparently for legitimate crimes, the
President has openly admitted that the arrests a "tit for
tat" response to the oppositions attempts to impeach him.


2. (U) Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) MP Lucius
Banda, who had presented the bill putting in place
impeachment procedures, was arrested last week for forging a
high school diploma in order to qualify for his parliamentary
seat. Maxwell Milanzi, the UDF MP who put forward the motion
to indict the president, was also arrested for covering up a
previous arrest that should have made him ineligible for
Parliament. Finally, UDF Spokesman, and former Minister of
Education, Sam Mpasu was arrested on corruption charges after
returning from a trip to Scotland last week. All three were
arrested, and then released on bail the same day.


3. (SBU) Comment: The arrests are clearly politically
motivated, as the President himself all but admitted in press
statements on Monday, November 7. However, the charges
against Banda and Milanzi seem to be legitimate, and both
should be fairly easy to prove. The Mpasu case is a
different story, and should be much more difficult to pursue.
Though the arrests have been specifically targeted against
the UDF's point men on impeachment, they have caused both
opposition parties to take notice, and opposition MPs are
becoming increasingly nervous that more arrests could follow.
It appears unlikely to us that this campaign will target
members from the Malawi Congress Party (MCP),which
cooperated passively in the impeachment move. The MCP does
not hold the personal or political enmity toward Mutharika
that UDF does, and Mutharika continues to woo both the party
leadership and individual members. (End Comment).
GILMOUR