CONFIDENTIAL
MALAWI (continued)
(v)
(vi)
The judiciary is independent in its handling of civil and criminal cases. It is highly unlikely that any "political" case would ever come before the courts. However, the Forfeiture Act which is applied by executive order has been used to penalise people who have been acquitted by the courts or never accused of a specific offence.
The President would justify the use of extra- legal forms of punishment on the grounds that in a newly independent, developing country the law enforcement agencies have not reached the level of competence of the defences avail- able to the wealthy, who could thus evade re- tribution.
The role of Trade Unions is limited in practice to questions of safety, methods of operation, etc. They exercise no power or influence. Minimum wages are prescribed by law and actual wages are very largely determined by Central Government. But we know of no restriction of the right to freedom of association with others in membership of trade unions.
(vii) Many thousands of Malawians do go to neigh- bouring countries to work (manually) and no restriction seems to be placed on the movement of people wishing to do so. We have no information on other would-be emigrants but we believe that the Malawi Government would reserve the right to refuse a passport in specific cases.
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