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Strikes and Protests 2007- Save Zimbabwe Campaign
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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