
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 22, 1994                   TAG: 9405220074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BLANTYRE, MALAWI                                LENGTH: Short

NEW MALAWI PRESIDENT VOWS TO EASE POVERTY

Bakili Muluzi was sworn in Saturday as Malawi's first democratically elected president and immediately decreed the closure of three prisons notorious for torture under the rule of the former dictator.

Muluzi also ordered the release of the few remaining political prisoners and commuted to life imprisonment the death sentences of at least 10 convicts.

"Ours is a government committed to the alleviation of poverty," Muluzi said. The nation's potential would be exploited "for all Malawians, and not only a few families."

- Associated Press

by CNB