RIGHTS-MALAWI:
Frank Phiri

MALAWI - BLANTYRE, Feb 9 (IPS) - When police announced recently that they had detained a man in the northern town of Karonga for allegedly killing his wife after she refused him sex, there were hopes that the arrest would send a stern warning to other husbands with violent inclinations.

Apparently, it didn't.

Within a week of the Karonga murder, two other husbands attempted to kill their wives: one by chopping off both arms of the spouse, the other by petrol-bombing his wife.

Shortly after that, a woman and her one-month-old baby were found in a maize patch. They had allegedly been killed and mutilated by the woman's husband, before he attempted to hang himself.

Police reports indicate that last month alone, five women died at the hands of their husbands, along with two children under five.

However, civil society groups say such incidents are only the tip of the iceberg.

"We are aware that these revealed cases only represent a fraction of the reality of the magnitude of violence against women taking place in the country," says a joint statement by 17 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in response to recent incidents of violence against women and children.

Most cases of abuse go unreported, they add -- particularly as concerns girls.

"We're informed by various research studies that a huge number of cases of gender-based violence are covered up by the culture of silence," note the NGOs.

In a country where cultural norms are often at odds with gender equality, women may find themselves without a voice in the family; this oppression persists despite the fact that women outnumber men in Malawi.

Events of recent weeks have prompted President Bingu wa Mutharika to call for women to break with tradition.

"Break this culture of silence from now onwards. Do not listen to myths which say you'll...shut your mouth even when he (a husband) cuts your limbs," he said in a state-of-the-nation address towards the end of last month.

"These sinister things sound like nightmares, but they are real. As your leader, I'm annoyed, disturbed and deeply saddened. Have men in our land chosen to become worse than beasts?" Mutharika asked.

Government says it has established a 176,000-dollar fund to assist with the rehabilitation of victims of domestic violence. Some of this money will be issued in the form of loans, and other amounts as grants -- depending on the type of harm suffered by the victim.

While culture is widely viewed as contributing to the abuse of women and children, it is not the only factor at play.

A survey issued last month by the Southern Region Community Policing Unit showed that hunger and deepening poverty had led to a general increase in crime -- spousal and child abuse included.

According to the study, reported crime in the region increased by 4.5 percent last year, with 23,353 cases being noted in 2005 against 22,331 in 2004. No less than 60 percent of the offences committed last year were linked to national food shortages.

"Most of the suspects said they committed various crimes out of the want of necessities such as food," said Constable Jacqueline De Silva, who worked on the survey.

About five million of Malawi's estimated 12 million citizens require food aid at present, according to the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee -- made up of government and donor representatives. To date, officials and aid agencies have not been able to reach all those in need.

The policing unit survey also bemoaned a lack of officers to respond to increasing cases of crime.

The Southern region, the most populous of Malawi's three regions, currently has 2,338 police officers -- or one for every 1,137 civilians -- says the survey, adding: "This is against the...standard police population ratio of one officer to 500 civilians."

In addition to their concerns about wife battering, activists say they are alarmed at apparent increases in rape, underage sex and molestation perpetrated by men who believe that intercourse with a child or a virgin can rid them of HIV.

"There is (a) theory applied by the witchdoctors that people who tested HIV-positive could cleanse themselves of the virus if they slept with girl-children," Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Henry Phoya has noted.

Official figures indicate that at least a million Malawians have contracted the virus; the country's adult prevalence rate is put at 15 percent. But, of the 170,000 AIDS patients in need of anti-retrovirals, only 82,000 are expected to have access to the drugs by March, according to the National AIDS Commission.

Phoya’s department, in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender and Child Welfare Services, has proposed a new bill to tighten the screws on domestic violence. The suggested legislation could see rapists become eligible for the death sentence, with men found guilty of sex with minors risking prison sentences of 14 years to life.

In neighboring Tanzania, authorities have recently passed tough laws that stipulate a minimum sentence of 30 years for rape, and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for defilement of a child.