Post date: Apr 23, 2012 6:8:5 PM
CHISOKA, MALAWI (APRIL 23, 2012)(REUTERS) - Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika was buried on Monday (April 23) three weeks after he died after a heart attack.
Former Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika is buried in his home town of Chisoka.
He was buried on his farm in his home village of Chisoka, 30 km east of Malawi's commercial capital Blanytyre. He was laid to rest next to his first wife, Ethel, who died in 2007.
Some 3,000 people attended the ceremony, including several African heads of state including Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe.
Mutharika was a leader widely seen as an autocrat responsible for a stunning economic collapse. Many Malawians blamed Mutharika personally for the recent economic woes.
Mutharika came to power in 2004 and presided over a seven-year boom - underpinned by foreign aid and favourable rains - that made Malawi one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
The good times came to a halt last year after a dispute with Britain, Malawi's biggest donor, that led to tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and the freezing of millions of dollars of aid.
Mutharika was succeeded by Joyce Banda, a the former vice president of Malawi and long-time women's rights activist. She was sworn in as president on April 7, two days after Mutharika's unexpected death.
One of her first moves as president was to fire Malawi's police chief for the killing of 20 people in anti-government protests in July 2011, which drew international condemnation and led to the aid cuts.
The IMF said last week it was in discussions with Malawi on a new economic program that would be supported by an IMF loan.
The Fund suspended its 79 million U.S. dollar programme with Malawi last year over Mutharika's handling of the economy. The aid freeze compounded an acute dollar shortage caused by a sharp decline in tobacco sales, Malawi's main source of foreign revenue.