- HARARE - Unionists, priests
and thousands of representatives from civic groups yesterday announced
a civil disobedience campaign to force Zimbabwe's Government to implement
political reforms and stage free presidential elections early next year.
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- Zimbabwe has been gripped by economic and political turmoil
for nearly two years since government-backed militants began invading white-owned
farms, and the appeal for mass action by the National Constitutional Assembly
will further heighten tensions.
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- Risking arrest, the assembly's leaders agreed to embark
on a nationwide program of civil disobedience, strikes and tax boycotts
from next month, unless the Government accedes to their demands for reform.
"We will proceed regardless of the consequences," assembly spokesman
Douglas Mwonzora said. The assembly last year successfully campaigned against
a constitutional amendment proposed by President Robert Mugabe to redistribute
thousands of white-owned farms to landless blacks.
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- The proposal was defeated in a referendum, but Mr Mugabe
ignored it and condoned the subsequent seizure of 1700 white-owned farms
by ruling party militants as a justified response to the legacy of inequitable
land ownership left by colonial rule.
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- The Government also introduced legislation enabling it
to seize several thousand more farms.
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- Lovemore Madhuku, a law lecturer who chairs the assembly,
said it was fruitless to hope Mr Mugabe would respond to diplomatic pressure
for political reform.
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- Delegates at an assembly gathering yesterday adopted
a new draft constitution, which proposes boosting Parliament's powers,
entrenching human rights and limiting the power of the presidency.
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- "We are here producing a document for popular mobilisation,"
Mr Madhuku said. "These were areas of disappointment but the people
have a right to (determine) their own constitution."
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