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Madhuku arrested at constitutional demo
New
Zimbabwe.com
August 05, 2005
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/madhuku3.12940.html
ZIMBABWEAN police
foiled a public protest for a new constitution and arrested National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairman, Lovemore Madhuku, on Thursday
afternoon.
Also arrested
alongside him was Bright Chibvuri, a journalist with The Worker,
a newspaper published by the country's biggest labour movement --
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
A third man
identified as Cornelius Ruwoko was also dragged away by armed officers
from the riot squad who were called in to disrupt the marchers.
Madhuku and
his group planned to stage a demonstration outside the Harare International
Conference Centre where the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs
was holding a consultative public meeting on planned amendments
to the country's constitution.
The planned
amendments include barring individuals whose land has been seized
from making a court challenge except on the amount of compensation.
It also seeks
to re-establish a lower house of parliament to be known as the Senate
and imposition of travel restrictions on Zimbabweans suspected of
"engaging in terrorist training abroad".
Economic commentator,
Dr Alex Magaisa, said the new legislation posed a serious danger
to Zimbabwe's failing economy, warning parliament against endorsing
the amendments.
Said Dr Magaisa:
"Parliament must think long and hard before passing these dangerous
amendments into law for they are mortal danger to the economy. By
ousting the jurisdiction of the courts (in relation to the land
amendment), the government is effectively violating the time-honoured
principle of separation of powers.
"The confidence
of investors will decline further while the credit rating of the
country and businesses will be drastically reduced. The danger of
allowing a change of this character will in future open the way
for the state to violate the law with reckless abandon."
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