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South Africans seized at talks with unionists in Zimbabwe
The New York Times
October 27, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com

JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe immigration officers seized 13 members of a South African trade union delegation on Tuesday as they met with their Zimbabwean counterparts in Harare, then ordered them to leave the country at the behest of President Robert G. Mugabe's government.

There was no immediate explanation about why the delegation, from the Congress of South African Trade Unions, was ordered expelled. But Zimbabwean authorities had urged the union leaders earlier to cancel their visit, and had warned them upon their arrival on Monday not to meet with organizations opposed to Mr. Mugabe's government.

The South Africans were detained as they met Tuesday morning with members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which is close to Zimbabwe's only political opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. The delegation had also scheduled meetings with six civic, church and human-rights groups that have been sharply critical of Mr. Mugabe's government.

The delegation's members initially said they would refuse to leave the country, according to a statement on the union's Web site, and they returned to their rooms in a Harare hotel. But they were later "forcibly loaded onto a bus" and taken to the airport to wait for the first flight to South Africa, the union congress, known as Cosatu, said in an written statement.

"They're still at the airport and are not likely to leave until early tomorrow morning," the Cosatu spokesman, Patrick Craven, said in a telephone interview late Tuesday. "There aren't a lot of flights from Harare to here."

Zimbabwe officials had earlier rebuffed the delegation's efforts to enter the country, telling the group that its visit was neither "welcome nor acceptable," news services reported. The delegation told the government it intended to come anyway and, according to Zimbabwe union officials quoted in news reports, the delegates were given one-day visas upon their arrival in Harare.

The congress's statement said that the meeting broken up by the immigration officers "was totally peaceful and orderly," and that the delegation "sought only to meet and talk to the representatives of the people of Zimbabwe."

"The government's attempt firstly to ban the mission, then to impose restrictions on whom it could meet, and then to throw its members out of the country all point to a serious lack of democracy and respect for human rights," it stated.

The congress had called the Zimbabwe tour a fact-finding mission to "contribute to finding a solution'' to Zimbabwe's problems. With nationwide parliamentary elections scheduled for March, the Zimbabwe government has markedly tightened restrictions on both domestic and foreign civic organizations even as it has pledged to hold an open vote.

The trade union congress is allied with South Africa's ruling African National Congress, whose leader, President Thabo Mbeki, has sought unsuccessfully to end a bitter standoff between Mr. Mugabe's government and the opposition.

A spokesman for Mr. Mbeki, Smuts Ngonyama, said in a telephone interview that the government had no immediate comment on the expulsion order.

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