President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has called on Malawians to stop labeling those people who died during the July 20, 2010 anti-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) demonstrations as thieves, saying they are Malawians who deserve respect.

Mutharika’s remarks were in sharp contrast with his later brother Bingu wa Mutharika who branded 20 people killed during the demonstrations as thieves.

In a statement delivered during a memorial service conducted on Monday at Zolozolo cemetery by Presidential adviser on non-governmental organizations Mavuto Bamusi the President has been grieved for the four years that have elapsed since the killings took place.

“If it was possible to scrap off July 20 from the calendar, the President would have been the first person to do that. It is a bad day to the country,” said Bamusi.

On his party, one of the family members of the deceased Mercy Mbezuma Mfune accused CCAP Livingstonia Synod and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country of neglecting them.

“It’s not that we have left out the church and society, but we think they could have done better on this issue. Even these prayers, we have organized ourselves as all civil society organizations cannot be traced now,” complained Mfune.

Mfune then asked government to come to their rescue by constructing tombstones and supporting them as most of those killed were their families’ breadwinners.