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Rights activist lambasts inaction over Zimbabwe
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
April 14, 2007

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070414/wl_africa_afp/zimbabwechurch_070414151731

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (AFP) - A leading rights activist on Saturday castigated the Southern African Development Community and the African Union for their inaction in the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe.

The secretary general of the World Alliance for Citizen Participation Kumi Naidoo told a prayer meeting in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo that the "SADC and AU should be closed down if they cannot take action in the collective interests of the citizens they represent. "Even minus the politics, the economic meltdown is evident and as Southern African citizens we are getting fed up of their non assertive action."

Zimbabwe's economy has been on a downturn for the past seven years characterised by world-record inflation, high unemployment with the majority of the population living below the poverty threshold.

Scores converged at a church in Zimbabwe's second city Saturday for the prayer meeting convened by a coalition of rights and opposition groups for an end to the political and economic crisis in the country.

The meeting, organised by groups under the aegis of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, was attended by at least 300 people including Church leaders, from Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries, rights activists and leaders of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The three-hour service held at St Patrick's Catholic Church in Makokoba suburb came just over a month after security beat up MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and scores of party activists and gunned down a local party official as they blocked a prayer rally in Highfields township in the capital.

Several opposition activists were hospitalised following the crackdown which was followed by a ban on political rallies in most parts of Harare.

Police had initially declared the Bulawayo church meeting illegal saying the organisers did not get mandatory police clearance.

But the organisers argued that the prayer meeting was exempted under the Public Order and Security Act which outlaws political rallies or processions without police clearance.

A spokesperson for the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, Useni Sibanda, said they received a call late Friday saying the meeting could go ahead.

Sibanda said the latest police decision was a victory for the Church in Zimbabwe. "We never applied and did not have to go to court. To us it means the church's space is still being protected."

Outspoken Roman Catholic Archibishop Pius Ncube said the State's decision to allow the service to go ahead "shows they (the government) realize resistance is growing and if they stopped the meeting, they would have provoked trouble because people are suffering and are becoming more militant."

The actual service itself was a solemn event with clerics from various denominations giving updates of the social situation in Zimbabwe.

Representatives of political parties and civic organisations were also given time to speak despite police instructions that political leaders should not speak.

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