Malawi anti-government demonstrations - Organisers of Wednesday’s scheduled anti-government demonstrations have announced that they have indefinitely postponed them. Spokesman for the organisers, Rodgers Newa, told a press conference in the capital, Lilongwe, Tuesday - a day before the scheduled demonstrations - that an injunction and mediation efforts by a delegation of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were the reasons behind the postponement.

'The vigil or demonstrations tomorrow (Wednesday) will not take place,' he said, adding that 'the organising team is officially announcing now that the vigil has been postponed until further notice.'

Two small-scale Blantyre-based businessmen took out the injunction, arguing that they fear a repeat of the 20 July violence during which businesses were looted and gutted down by arsonists.

James Willy and Roderick Makapu sought the injunction, arguing that several businessmen lost millions of kwacha in the orgy of looting and cannot be compensated.

A high court judge in Blantyre started hearing those arguments and counter-arguments Monday.

Moses Mkandawire, also an organiser of the demonstrations, said civil society leaders met the UN delegation Monday and agreed they should mediate between them and government.

Mkandawire said they wanted to 'deescalate' the tension in Malawi by dialoguing with government through an independent mediator.

'To ensure that the process is credible, we have proposed that there had to be a mediator between and amongst the negotiators,' he said, adding 'in this case, we have proposed, as a matter of preference, that the United Nations should play that role.'

The civil society leaders said should there be no improvement in their 20-point demands after the mediation process, the civil society would call for further demonstrations.

They also said they would take on board the report by the state-run Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) on the handling of the 20 July events to seek compensation for the dead and injured.

The civil society, backed by the opposition and religious leaders, was planning a repeat of the 20 July demonstrations when Malawians took to the streets in their thousands protesting against poor economic and political governance, characterised by persistent fuel and foreign exchange (forex) reserves shortages and what they called bad laws.

No fewer than 19 people were shot dead by the police as the demonstrations degenerated into chaos and looting.

Pana 16/08/2011