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Church leaders and civic groups demand repeal of Zimbabwe security law
2003-066-4
3/25/2003
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[Episcopal News Service]
Church and civic group leaders in Zimbabwe have demanded the 'immediate repeal' of a security law that went into effect last year curtailing freedom of movement and of expression and forbidding public meetings without police permission.
'Since its enactment, the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) has been used to wantonly detain, intimidate and victimize pro-democracy actors such as labor activists, students, women's groups, congregants, civic and political leaders and the generality of Zimbabweans,' the leaders said in a petition to the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa. Among the signatories were Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city; Wilson Sithsebo of the Zimbabwe National Pastors' Conference; the Rev. Raymond Motsi of the Baptist Union; and the Rev. Patson Netha.
The petitioners deplored the selective application of the act by the authorities and the 'heavy-handedness with which the police have disrupted meetings, detained individuals and tortured detainees.' Their call came two weeks after similar demands were made by the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) following the arrest and detention of Bishop Trevor Manhanga, the EFZ president, before a church meeting in Harare.
The security act was passed in January 2002 in the run-up to Zimbabwe's presidential election. Among the first people detained under the act were 11 church leaders in Bulawayo, who were arrested while praying for the release of a colleague taken into custody for organizing a peace march in the city.
'In just one year of the [act's] existence, thousands of citizens have been unlawfully arrested and detained,' the petition said. 'These arrests far exceed those made under the Law and Order [Maintenance] Act in the late 1970s when the country was less peaceful.' The Law and Order Act, introduced by Ian Smith's government to suppress the 1970s' black nationalist movement in Zimbabwe, was repealed two years ago and replaced by the Public Order and Security Act.
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