AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

Act and Penal Code that increased the
penalties for the sale of body tissue and
possession of a dead body or human tissue.
They were signed into law in September.
At least seven people with albinism were
killed during 2016 and many more suffered
attacks. Among those killed by criminal
gangs were 23-month-old baby Whitney
Chilumpha and nine-year-old Harry
Mokoshoni.
In May, unidentified men killed and
mutilated Fletcher Masina, a man with
albinism, while he was working in his garden.
In July, Lucia Kainga was attacked and
had her right hand chopped off by
unidentified men in Mweneipenza 5 village,
bordering Tanzania. Her husband was tricked
into opening the door by an attacker
pretending to be in need of help.
On 19 August, a village headman was
arrested after attempting to sell a seven-yearold
boy with albinism in Phalombe district.
He was remanded in custody pending trial.
Societal ignorance and stigmatization also
contributed to people with albinism suffering
widespread denial of their economic, social
and cultural rights. This included: exclusion
from government poverty alleviation
programmes; lack of support in schools to
address bullying and learning difficulties;
failure to address their specific medical
needs; and lack of economic opportunities.
REPRESSION OF DISSENT
In February, three parliamentarians of the
Malawi Congress Party were arrested:
Congress spokesperson Jessie Kabwila.
Ulemu Msungama and Peter Chankwantha.
They were charged with treason in
connection with social media messages and
released on bail. Their arrest contravened
procedures protecting parliamentarians from
arrest.
In July, students from the University of
Malawi protested against a three fold rise in
tuition fees imposed by the government. At
Chancellor College in Zomba, police stormed
hostels and fired tear gas at students who
sought refuge in their rooms. A video showed
police slapping two women students. On 26
July, 14 students from Malawi Polytechnic
near Blantyre were arrested and charged with
conduct likely to breach the peace. They
were later released on bail. Eleven students
from Kamuzu College of Nursing were also
arrested and charged with “proposing
violence”. They were later released on bail.
1. Malawi: "We are not animals to be hunted or sold" − violence and
discrimination against people with albinism in Malawi (AFR
36/4126/2016)
MALAYSIA
Malaysia
Head of state: King Muhammad V (replaced King Abdul
Halim Mu’adzam Shah in October)
Head of government: Najib Tun Razak
The crackdown on the rights to freedom of
expression, of peaceful assembly and of
association persisted. Police were not held
accountable for human rights violations.
Former opposition leader and prisoner of
conscience Anwar Ibrahim, convicted on
trumped-up charges of “sodomy”, remained
in prison serving a five-year sentence.
Refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing
persecution faced prolonged detention in
poor conditions.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Restrictive laws such as the Sedition Act and
the Communications and Multimedia Act
continued to be used to silence government
critics, who were harassed, intimidated and
often detained.
In March, the independent news portal,
The Malaysian Insider, was shut down for
commercial reasons after being blocked by
the government. This was following critical
coverage of a corruption scandal linked to the
Prime Minister and the misappropriation of
hundreds of millions of US dollars from the
state-owned investment company 1Malaysia
Development Berhad (1MDB). 1
Prosecutions of political activists and
government critics persisted. In May, political
activist Hishamuddin Rais was found guilty
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