Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Malawi
Newsline: Malawi reverses expulsion of British diplomat
Malawihas withdrawn its expulsion of Britain’s envoy, asked to leave in April after he was quoted expressing concern about the Malawian president’s intolerance of criticism and about deteriorating human rights here. Britain expelled Malawi’s envoy and suspended aid in response to the Malawi order that President Bingu wa Mutharika’s administration described as “unfortunate.”Malawisays the British envoy is free to return. AlsoMalawirevoked a four-year-old deportation order against the president of neighboring Zambia. Zambia’s Michael Sata, elected president last month, had been an opposition leader when he tried to visit a Malawian opposition leader in 2007. Sata refused to attend a regional summit this week in Malawi because of the incident.
http://m.billingsgazette.com/mobile/article_d8ccc29b-9566-53b3-9d18-ef098beb307b.html
Newsline: Malawi to expel British diplomat
The Malawi Government has given the British High Commissioner in that country, Fergus Cochrane-Dyet, three days to leave after allegedly describing President Bingu wa Mutharika as a dictator. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the British acting permanent under-secretary, Geoffrey Adams, on Tuesday summoned theMalawicharge d’affaires inLondonand conveyed the foreign secretary’s concern over the planned move. The matter arose following the discovery of a leaked diplomatic telegram sent from the British High Commission inMalawi’s capital,Lilongwe, toLondon, in which Cochrane-Dyet spoke on Mutharika’s leadership, thereby raising fears that political tension are likely to rise in 2014 after he steps down. President Mutharika, however, praised the British Government for its “steadfast” support of the former colony.
Newsline: British envoy asked to leave Malawi
Britain’s envoy to Malawi has been asked to leave the Southern African country after he was quoted in a local newspaper expressing concern about the president’s intolerance of criticism and about deteriorating human rights, diplomats said on Monday. A Malawian and a British diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the news, said British high commissioner Fergus Cochrane-Dyet was informed he had 48 hours to leave during a meeting on Monday with Foreign Minister Etta Banda. InLondon,Britain’s Foreign Office was not able to immediately confirm that Cochrane-Dyet had been expelled, but acknowledged a meeting with Banda had taken place.Malawi’s Weekend Nation recently published a story based on what it says is a cable Cochrane-Dyet sent toLondon. “The governance situation continues to deteriorate in terms of media freedom, freedom of speech and minority rights,” Cochrane-Dyet is quoted as saying. Cochrane-Dyet also was quoted as describing President Bingu wa Mutharika as “combative” and saying he “is becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism”, and saying rights activists report a campaign of intimidation through threatening anonymous phone calls. Weekend Nation quoted Cochrane-Dyet as saying the Mutharika administration was increasingly growing impatient with the donor community with some ambassador being summoned by the Foreign Minister “for a dressing down, others [including me] have been summoned by the president’s brother for gentler delivery of the same message.” The governments of Germany, the United States and Norway have also expressed disquiet about the political climate in Malawi. A $350-million US grant to improve Malawi’s power supply network was delayed for several months until Washington said it had received “strong commitments” from the Malawi government to uphold human rights. The German government decreased aid after Malawi failed to repeal laws criminalising homosexuality, and enacted laws seen as restricting media freedom.
Newsline: U.S. embassy in Malawi launches facebook page
United States embassy in Malawi has joined the ever growing list of users on the social networking website Face book which has over 400 million users worldwide. Ambassador Peter Bodde presided over the launch of the U.S. embassy facebook page at the Public Affairs Section auditorium where he “pressed the button” to publish the page for public access. The embassy expects the Facebook page to be a valuable resource for the public to keep track of the Embassy’s activities and events, and to stay on top of U.S. Government policy initiatives that are relevant in Malawi and across Africa.
http://www.africanews.com/site/Malawi_US_embassy_launches_facebook_page/list_messages/30222
