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Lawyers say 'prayer meeting' to go ahead
ZimOnline
March 10, 2007

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=1001

HARARE - Lawyers representing the Save Zimbabwe Campaign on Friday said Sunday's "prayer meeting" scheduled for the Zimbabwe Grounds will go ahead as prayer meetings did not need police clearance under the country's tough security laws.

The Save Zimbabwe Campaign is a coalition of civic groups and opposition political parties fighting for political change in Zimbabwe.

In a letter to Officer Commanding Harare South, Superintendent Thomsen Jangara, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights executive director, Irene Petras, said her clients will go ahead with the prayer meeting because such meeting were exempted under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

The police had refused to sanction the meeting citing POSA which demands that political parties and civic groups first notify the police before calling any political meetings.

"We are therefore hereby instructed that the Save Zimbabwe Campaign prayer meeting will go ahead on 11 March 2007 as previously advised, and that if you wish to prevent this meeting from taking place, you are free to approach the courts for relief," said Petras.

"It is clear that the regulating authorities do not have the powers to prevent this prayer meeting from taking place," she added.

The police could not be reached for comment on the matter.

Tensions are running high in Harare after the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party distributed fliers in the city urging residents to attend the meeting in the working class suburb of Highfield, the scene of violent clashes between the police and opposition supporters last month.

President Robert Mugabe's government has banned rallies and demonstrations across the country in a move that has been condemned by the MDC as virtual declaration of a state of emergency. - ZimOnline

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