UK and Malawi diplomats expelled

The UK has ordered Malawi’s high commissioner to leave the country over the “unacceptable” expulsion of Britain’s envoy to Lilongwe.

Fergus Cochrane-Dyet was told to leave Malawi after he was quoted in a leaked cable as saying the president does not tolerate criticism.

A British diplomat warned of “serious consequences”, according to an internal memo seen by the BBC.

Some 40% of Malawi’s budget comes from abroad. The UK is the largest donor.

There will now be no Malawian government representative at a party to celebrate the royal wedding on Friday.

According to the diplomatic cable published by the local Weekend Nation newspaper last week, Mr Cochrane-Dyet described Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika as “becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism”.

He said local civil society activists were afraid after a campaign of threatening phone calls.

“I am sorry to pass on the news that the Malawi government have officially informed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office today [Tuesday] that Fergus is being declared persona non grata,” reads the memo signed by British High Commission Vice-Consul Lindsay McConaghy.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an estimated 75% of the population living on less than $1 (60p) a day.

Mr Cochrane-Dyet was quoted as saying that these would be the people who would suffer most if aid was cut as relations with donors worsen.

Mr Mutharika was elected to office in 2004 and widely praised for his campaign against corruption.

But the BBC’s Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre says that since his landslide re-election in 2009, his government has been accused of intimidating critics.