As families of those slain in the July 20, 2011 nationwide demonstrations remembered their dead in Mzuzu Wednesday, the Malawi Law Society (MLS) has insisted that that those responsible for the killings should face the law.<\/p>\n
MLS President, John Suzi Banda, said in a statement released yesterday that July 20 serves as an indicator that the country still has work to do to consolidate democracy.<\/p>\n
Banda noted that the negative aspect about the killings five years ago is that people who were in \u201cthe prime of their life, were brutally cut down\u201d in the course of exercising their freedom to peaceably assemble and demonstrate with others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must still insist that those who might have unlawfully used force on unarmed and defenceless people account for their actions in courts of law. And we must still remind those on whose shoulders the responsibility falls that the need for reform of our law enforcement agencies, so that they see it as their sacrosanct duty to uphold the rights and freedoms of all people at all times, remains pressing,\u201d said Banda in the statement.<\/p>\n
Banda said, in a bid to avert similar incidents, Malawians should work towards regulating power. He warns that failure to do so may be tantamount to letting the slain die in vain.<\/p>\n
Banda added that the slain died in the cause for freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is always important that, as a people, we remember the ultimate sacrifice that those who were killed on that day made. Their deaths were not and should not be in vain. As has been rightly said by one of Malawi\u2019s most accomplished jurist \u2018with entrenched constitutions the danger grows that the job is done and humanity is safe from maturing political forces. The search for ways of legitimising as well as regulating power therefore continued and continues to this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no place on earth where humanity can rest in the belief that the formula for regulating power has been realised and that there is no more work to be done and no further vigilance against abuse necessary… Humanity particularly black humanity needs to understand that even in the hands of the good and the very best amongst our own, power still needs regulation,\u201d said Banda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As families of those slain in the July 20, 2011 nationwide demonstrations remembered their dead in Mzuzu Wednesday, the Malawi Law Society (MLS) has insisted that that those responsible for the killings should face the law. MLS President, John Suzi Banda, said in a statement released yesterday that July 20 serves as an indicator that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28498,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28493\/revisions\/28498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}