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| - Malawi police fired teargas Thursday to scatter thousands of protestors marching to denounce rapes and sexual abuse by policemen. The police defended the action in the capital Lilongwe, saying some of the marchers vandalised shops and vehicles. Billy Mayaya of the Human Rights Defender Coalition told AFP that police fired on the crowd as they started the march to present a petition to the police headquarters. "I don't know triggered the teargas but we were marching peacefully when we were suddenly ambushed. But the march did proceed peacefully after that and we were able to present the petition to the authorities," he said. National police spokesman James Kadadzera told AFP that officers were forced to intervene after several unruly incidents. "So far, we have received reports that at least seven shops and five vehicles were vandalised. "We have also received reports that six police officers sustained various degrees of injuries ... The demonstrators pelted stones at the officers who were in their campus," he said. Kadadzera said the police arrested 17 people. The police have come under fire after reports emerged that they had sexually molested women in Lilongwe in October. The alleged violations were to avenge the death of a fellow police officer, who was stoned to death by unidentified protestors on October 8. A report released last week by the Malawi Human Rights Commission said 17 girls and women were subjected to sexual abuse. "They were violently beaten" and groped and stripped naked, it said. "Four of the survivors are children below the age of 18 and one of these was defiled and the three were indecently assaulted. "Eight of the 17 survivors were sexually assaulted, defiled and raped," the report reads. In the petition, the protesters demanded the immediate arrest of all the police officers concerned. "HRDC will stop at nothing in demanding for accountability with regard to this heinous crime that the Malawi Police Service committed," the petition said. "The Malawi Police Service can no longer use delaying tactics for this crime and indeed any other crimes that have been committed," it added. str/ach
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