Whew it's been a long couple of days here in Malawi. I have another post sitting in Word, but I figured I should update on this first since many of ya'll have been following via Internet News and Facebook.

There wasn't any reporting going on until hours later and the articles I've seen since then aren't really very good. I'm posting this article because it's much more accurate of the tense mood that was country-wide for the last days. It only covers the first day though. She lives in Texas (oh what a small world!) but is a political science professor who specializes in Malawi and has lived here multiple times as a Fulbright Scholar. She was following the stories all day via twitter. As was I because President Bingu banned the radios from broadcasting live updates and phone networks were largely down, so twitter was the only source of information really. Here it is:

http://habanahaba.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/a-day-of-protests-in-malawi-a-chronological-account-from-afar/

On 20th July, the opposition party, NGOs, students, lecturers, etc. - basically the majority of the country (surprising to see such unity!) joined together to plan a PEACEFUL demonstration. People were supposed to gather and march to the town's district council (like town hall I suppose) to present the official with a petition/list of grievances that would then be passed in theory to President Bingu. The issues mainly dealt with fuel shortages, forex (foreign currency) shortages, electricity outages, rising food costs, rising taxes, and just general messings up of Bingu in running the country. It was genuinely supposed to be a peaceful day. The police said beforehand that they were not going to resist, but just guide and oversee to make sure it stayed calm. I, however, was dubious. It only takes one idiot doing something reckless for things to get out of hand... I was impressed though that the Malawian peoples were actually standing up for themselves though and doing something proactive. Malawians are lovely, if a bit passive and deferential to authority figures. Rock on for organizing a nationwide march.

Unfortunately, a citizen decided to file an injunction which would ban the demonstration marches. This is where all of the confusion began as the crowds gathered anyway and the police blocked them, refusing to let them march until their superiors allowed it. Unfortunately, that permission came hours too late (after lunch), so the marchers got antsy and forced their way through, which started the fighting between the police and the people which then spiraled into the fires and looting. In all cities, the police were overpowered, many running for their own lives. People were throwing stones and setting things on fire. The police used tear gas to disperse (aka chaos inducing) and beating people. They arrested masses of people and were even beating journalists. And then later in the afternoon/evening, reports that they started using live bullets. Sigh. Shops owned by Chinese immigrants were most targeted as people view China as being aligned with Bingu. Also, the government-run shops - Metro, PTC - were also hit as were the shops owned by MPs and other government officials. Looted and burned. Cars were also burned. A couple of houses too. Police houses were also looted and burned. Seemed to be the theme of the day sadly.

Mzuzu was the worst, it seems. 9 people died there alone, although the government was originally reporting only 1 death for the whole country. Laughable. Lilongwe was also very violent. Peter Ngoma said the city was burning and his family was locked indoors. Blantyre started out very peacefully as the whole thing was intended. I think it only turned violent towards evening hours.

And good old Karonga. I thought we had escaped chaos here. But really they were just waiting. The march didn't start until 3 pm. It was peaceful at first - they delivered the petition just fine. But then afterwards the looting started. Chipiku, PTC, Metro. No burning that I have heard of. After dark Jim called me to say that 2 mobs had formed - 1 outside of Chief Karonga's house. Chief Karonga is seen as pro-Bingu here. His house was damaged and his car torched. The second mob was at the Chief of Police's house. Not sure what happened there. Gunshots were frequent, though Jim said they were being fired in the air to disperse the crowd. One person was killed in Karonga, though he was a looter, not a demonstrator.

Jim and Robyn have been taking care of me. They are AWESOME. They first called and told me to pack an overnight bag with everything important in case I had to high-tail it. Well that induced a meltdown, but I recovered. Poor Banda. They said that if they were evacuated to the mine that they were taking me along. But when that call came, I guess their security guy said I'd be fine at Chaminade since we're so far from town. Thank goodness. So I'm still on campus, but I have a seat on the plane if things get worse at any point.

So that was all on the first day!

Woke up on Day 2, hoping that it was all finished, but not so lucky. The second day was just looting and chaos though. No actual demonstrations, no organization, just groups of people going and breaking into shops and destroying property. Really upsetting to see actually, although not surprising that impoverished people will try to get what they can. Still lots of gunfire and stone-throwing and teargas. Bingu finally spoke at noon on the second day, though he didn’t say much of anything productive. Shocking lol. He basically blamed everyone but himself and said that all of the demonstrators are being led by the devil and that God always wins. Sigh. Forget about all of the economic and civil rights issues that are being trampled on here and that actually inspired the original march. Oh Bingu. He has said that he’s ready for round-table talks now so hopefully those will be in good faith and actually get things going right. The army was called in eventually which seems to be a turning point. The police simply couldn’t handle it on their own.

In total, 18 people have died so far. Although there are many who are still in critical condition at the hospitals. It would be interesting to see a number of how many were truly demonstrators who are victims of police brutality and how many were caught looters. Though I doubt we’ll ever actually see that number since the opposition will want everyone to be seen as demonstrators and the government will try to cast everyone as looters and vandals.

Everything has settled down today, 22nd July. Shops are opening up again, people are going back to work. Grateful that it's returning to normal.

The next march is rumored to be August 17th. Better get our booties out of here before then! Cross your fingers. Prayers please that everyone just calms the heck down and stops being reckless. It seems like there's just a whole lot of anger simmering now. My worry is that even if it calms down for a while - say while Bingu looks the petitions over and decides what to do, etc. - but as soon as he does the next stupid, stubborn thing, it'll boil over again.

Just a word of thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers sent our way throughout all of this. Not gonna lie, I was pretty scared for a couple of days and had a massive headache trying to come up with Plan A, B, C…. Z to keep Banda and myself safe and get out of here. I’m glad that it’s settled down!