48 women held in Zimbabwe protest march

48 women held in Zimbabwe protest march

JENNI WILLIAMS

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By Agencies

ZIMBABWE police on Tuesday arrested 48 women on a protest march against a new bill which government critics say is aimed at closing down operations of some private human rights groups, the protest organiser said.

Jenni Williams, a spokesperson of civic organisation Zimbabwe Women Arise (WOZA), said the women and four men, who had been helping the women with logistics, were arrested in Norton, 30km south of Harare, after walking 400km from Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo towards the capital.

"The 48, and the four youths, were arrested in Norton and we believe they are going to be held in custody tonight," she said. "The indications we have are that they will face charges of participating in a political march that was not authorised by police," Williams said by telephone.

Police spokespersons were not available to comment on the arrests. However, Williams said the women had embarked on the march last week to raise money and awareness for human rights work in Zimbabwe, where president Robert Mugabe's critics accused his government of abusing rights as part of a battle against its political opponents.

"This was a march to protest against the government's plans to enact the NGO (non-governmental organisations) Bill which we all believe will be used as a repressive tool to ban and to control human rights work in Zimbabwe," she said. Mugabe's government - which accuses Britain and other Western powers of using NGOs in a campaign to oust it - says the NGO Bill will ban foreign funding of rights activists, and require hundreds of organisations currently operating to register with a state-appointed body. - Reuters
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