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Zimbabwe
revokes all NGO licenses
Agence
France-Presse (AFP)
April 16, 2007
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-1662_2099677,00.html
Zimbabwean authorities
have cancelled licences for NGOs in a crackdown on groups accused
of planning to oust veteran President Robert Mugabe, state television
said on Monday.
"Government has
annulled registration certificates of all NGOs in order to sift
out those seeking to force regime change in Zimbabwe ," the
state broadcaster Zimbabwe Television said.
"As pro-opposition
and Western organisations masquerading as relief agencies continue
to mushroom, the government has annulled the registration certificates
of all NGOs in order to screen out agents of imperialism from genuine
organisations working to uplift the well-being of the poor."
The report said Information
Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu made the announcement at a meeting of
ruling-party supporters in the second city of Bulawayo .
"The opposition
has of late been aligning itself with anti-government religious
groups under the umbrella of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign," the
report said. "Rallies held under this banner have seen supposedly
prayer meetings turning into violent illegal gatherings."
Zimbabwean authorities
have in the past accused Western powers of using NGOs and aid agencies
to channel funds to the country's main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
The country's relations
with the West became strained after the United States and the European
Union imposed targeted sanctions on Mugabe and cronies from his
ruling party following presidential elections in 2002 whose outcome
was disputed by the MDC and Western observers.
Mugabe often castigates
MDC leaders as stooges of the West and accuses British Prime Minister
Tony Blair of harbouring plans to recolonise Zimbabwe using the
MDC as a front.
To keep an eye on the
operations of NGOs, the authorities drafted a Bill allowing the
state to demand records of finances and operations of NGOs. -- Sapa-AFP
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