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Zimbabwe:
400 women activists take to the streets over Mugabe's rights abuses
ZimOnline
August
02, 2005
http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=10302
BULAWAYO
- About 400 members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) activist
group wearing black armbands on Monday marched through Zimbabwe's
second largest city of Bulawayo protesting against human rights
violations allegedly by President Robert Mugabe and his government.
The women, who
wore black armbands to symbolise the death of freedom and democracy
in Zimbabwe, also called on the government to repeal repressive
security and press laws that have been used in the past five years
to silence the independent press and other voices of dissension.
WOZA spokeswoman
Magodonga Mahlangu told ZimOnline: "We are calling for the repeal
of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Regional Town and Country
Planning Act, the Urban Councils Act and other repressive laws that
are not in tandem with the goals of the liberation struggle."
The protests
by WOZA come barely two weeks after 29 of the group's activists
escaped possible jail after a magistrate dismissed charges against
them that they obstructed traffic during a protest last June against
the government's controversial urban clean-up campaign.
Mahlangu said
WOZA also wrote to Mugabe on July 29 urging him to uphold human
rights and to accept the recommendations of United Nations special
envoy Anna Tibaijuka to call off the urban clean-up drive and seek
humanitarian assistance for the victims of the operation.
Mugabe's spokesman
George Charamba could not be reached last night to establish whether
Mugabe had seen the WOZA letter. But Harare has dismissed Tibaijuka's
report saying it was biased.
Zimbabwe, at
one time one of the best prospects for economic and social success
in Africa, has one of the poorest human rights records on the continent.
Under Harare's
security laws, Zimbabweans require police permission first to meet
in groups of three or more people to discuss politics while journalists
face up to two years in jail for practising without being registered
with the government's Media and Information Commission. Newspaper
companies must also be registered by the commission in order to
operate in the country. - ZimOnline
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