{"id":368284,"date":"2011-04-05T01:35:55","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T01:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/05\/botswana-opposition-to-boycott-visit-of-malawis-president\/"},"modified":"2011-04-05T01:35:55","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T01:35:55","slug":"botswana-opposition-to-boycott-visit-of-malawis-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/botswana-opposition-to-boycott-visit-of-malawis-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Botswana opposition to boycott visit of Malawi&#8217;s president"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div readability=\"64.918635170604\">  <!-- start feedback link --><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/feedback link --><br \/>\n       <!-- Tracking values --><\/p>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_start --><!--startclickprintinclude-->   <!--endclickprintinclude--> <!--startclickprintexclude--> <\/p>\n<div readability=\"8\">\n<p>By <b>Oarabile Mosikare<\/b>, For CNN<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/p>\n<div readability=\"41\"><!-- google_ad_section_start --><!-- CONTENT -->  <\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><b>STORY HIGHLIGHTS<\/b><\/p>\n<ul><!-- google_ad_section_start --><\/p>\n<li>Lawmakers are protesting visiting president&#8217;s policies<\/li>\n<li>Malawi leader harasses activists, represses media, they say<\/li>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--endclickprintexclude--> <!--startclickprintinclude--> <\/p>\n<p><b>Gaborone, Botswana (CNN)<\/b> &#8212; Sixteen members of Botswana opposition parties say they will boycott the official state visit of Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika this week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mutharika is an autocrat who recently called upon the youth of his political party, the Democratic Progressive Party, to assault members of the opposition who criticize him,&#8221; said Nehemiah Modubule, who belongs to the Botswana Movement for Democracy. &#8220;&#8230; My appearance on the same podium with him would amount to complicity in the harassment of opposition activists in Malawi.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Botswanan President Ian Khama invited Mutharika for a three-day state visit, which started Monday. All three opposition parties represented at Parliament &#8212; the Botswana Congress Party and Botswana National Front are the other two &#8212; said Malawi has seen a severe erosion in civil liberties and human rights under Mutharika&#8217;s presidency.<\/p>\n<p>Mutharika is scheduled to officially open the new Lobatse stadium Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Modubule accused Mutharika of following in the footsteps of former Malawi dictator Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who ruled a one-party state. Mutharika&#8217;s government has recently given his minister of information sweeping powers to arbitrarily close down the media houses without following normal judicial processes, Modubule said. &#8220;This is aimed at silencing independent press and browbeating journalists in Malawi to only report propaganda in favour of the government.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dumelang Saleshando of the Botswana Congress Party said, &#8220;We are disappointed that the Botswana government, which in some instances adopts a hard-line approach towards undemocratic regimes, has decided to honor Mutharika with a state visit whilst his country slides towards repression of human rights.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--endclickprintinclude--><!-- google_ad_section_end --><br \/>\n<!-- \/cnn_strybtmcntnt --><\/div>\n<p><!-- \/cnn_strycntnt --><!-- \/cnn_strycntntrgt --><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>More here:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/rss.cnn.com\/~r\/rss\/edition_africa\/~3\/fc8HC4F9VPk\/index.html\" title=\"Botswana opposition to boycott visit of Malawi's president\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Botswana opposition to boycott visit of Malawi&#8217;s president<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> By Oarabile Mosikare , For CNN STORY HIGHLIGHTS Lawmakers are protesting visiting president&#8217;s policies Malawi leader harasses activists, represses media, they say Gaborone, Botswana (CNN) &#8212; Sixteen members of Botswana opposition parties say they will boycott the official state visit of Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika this week. &#8220;Mutharika is an autocrat who recently called upon the youth of his political party, the Democratic Progressive Party, to assault members of the opposition who criticize him,&#8221; said Nehemiah Modubule, who belongs to the Botswana Movement for Democracy. &#8220;..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-368284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - 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