Police bar Malawi's supporters from holding rally

There were running battles in Blantyre's most populous township of Ndirande Sunday, as police fired teargas into a crowd of supporters of Malawi's former president Bakili Muluzi, who was scheduled to hold a political rally in the township.

The youth wing of Muluzi's United Democratic Front engaged the police with stones, but they were easily over-powered.

"They were firing teargas all over," said a young man nursing the head wounds he sustained during the violence.

"They beat up whoever they caught," he said.

The township, a Muluzi stronghold, was effectively under curfew throughout the afternoon as heavily armed anti-riot police officers were positioned in strategic corners to prevent the people from regrouping.

"We have instructions to stop Muluzi from holding this rally," said a police officer.

Meanwhile, the former president - who was about to leave his residence for the rally - had a rude awakening when he was told he was still under house arrest, even though the High Court freed him last Friday.

Muluzi's son, Atupele, told PANA scores of heavily-armed police officers surrounded the former president's residence in Blantyre's upmarket suburb of BCA Hill.

"The police officers told the former president that they had instructions to seal the residence because they were yet to be officially told that the house arrest has been lifted," he said.

But one of Muluzi's lawyers, Ralph Kasambara, said what the police officers were doing was in contempt of court.

"They can be prosecuted and jailed," he said.

Muluzi, who was arrested last Sunday over treason allegations, was granted bail by the High Court in Blantyre last Friday.

He was seized at Kamuzu International Airport in the capital, Lilongwe, as he alighted from a plane from a private trip to the United Kingdom.

He was airlifted in a military plane and placed under house arrest at his retirement home in Blantyre.

Several serving and retired military and police officers were also arrested on similar charges.

All of them denied plotting to overthrow the four-year-old administration of President Bingu wa Mutharika.

Muluzi described the actions as "political arrests aimed at intimidating the opposition in the run-up to the elections''