The Centre for the Development of People (Cedep) and Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) have described the government\u2019s habitual use of Malawi Defence Force (MDF) soldiers in internal security operations as a sign of lost of trust in the Malawi Police Service (MPS).<\/p>\n
Cedep Communications Officer Simeon Thodi and HRCC Chairperson Robert Mkwezalamba said the trend is worrying.<\/p>\n
In recent times, the government has been deploying soldiers for internal operations that are basically meant for police officers, prompting people to raise questions on what might have happened to the police service.<\/p>\n
MPS has the duty to ensure prevention, investigation and<\/p>\n
detection of crime, apprehension and prosecution of offenders, maintenance of law and order, protection of property, life, fundamental freedoms and rights of individuals and the enforcement of all laws and regulations under which they are directly charged.<\/p>\n
MDF is the state military organisation responsible for defending Malawi.<\/p>\n
But soldiers are currently enforcing the law and maintaining order in Dzalanyama Forest Reserve, Mulanje Mountain Forest Reserve and Viphya Plantation.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, President Peter Mutharika put more internal security responsibilities on the soldiers when he ordered their deployment to the country\u2019s border posts to guard routes that are suspected to be used in maize and tobacco smuggling.<\/p>\n
Thodi said the frequent deployment of army officers raises questions on police service\u2019s credibility in the eyes of not only public but the government as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have heard of police officers conniving with some communities to commit various crimes. We have heard of the rotten recruitment process at the service and now we see the government not trusting the service. If the government has lost trust in police, should we expect members of the general public to trust the police officers?\u201d Thodi said.<\/p>\n
Mkwezalamba said the government is abusing the definitive role of MDF and creating an inferiority complex among police officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps authorities have lost trust in the police in terms of capacity and corruption. It just tells you that there is mistrust. We are sending a wrong picture that police can\u2019t be trusted,\u201d Mkwezalamba said.<\/p>\n
He said the government should look critically into the roles of soldiers and police officers and if the police service is lacking in resources and capacity, the government should ensure it is properly resourced.<\/p>\n
But National Police Spokesperson James Kadadzera said MPS and MDF have the primary aim of ensuring safety and security and there is nothing wrong with the involvement of soldiers in some operations.<\/p>\n
Kadadzera said the two sides have even signed a code of conduct recently to cement their relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur aim is to foster safety and security in the country and there is nothing bizarre in working together with soldiers,\u201d Kadadzera said.<\/p>\n
Government spokesperson Nicholas Dausi is on record to have said the involvement of military in operation is meant to complement police efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Centre for the Development of People (Cedep) and Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) have described the government\u2019s habitual use of Malawi Defence Force (MDF) soldiers in internal security operations as a sign of lost of trust in the Malawi Police Service (MPS). Cedep Communications Officer Simeon Thodi and HRCC Chairperson Robert Mkwezalamba said the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43507","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\/43507","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=43507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43509,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43507\/revisions\/43509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}