DATE=4/28/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ZIMBABWE / ARREST (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-261807
BYLINE=PETA THORNYCROFT
DATELINE=HARARE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Police in Zimbabwe have arrested a journalist
working for the Associated Press and charged him in
connection with a bomb blast last Saturday near an
opposition newspaper, The Daily News. Peta
Thornycroft in Harare reports photographer Obert Zilwa
has been charged under a law -- created by the former
Rhodesian government -- which carries a maximum
sentence of life imprisonment.
TEXT: It will be up to Mr. Zilwa to prove his
innocence under the draconian Law and Order
Maintenance Act.
The law is designed to put the onus on the accused to
prove innocence rather than on the government to prove
guilt. Lawyers in Harare say the law was used
effectively in the past 40 years to curb civil rights
in both white-ruled Rhodesia and independent Zimbabwe.
The bomb was exploded outside the Daily News after the
government increased its criticism of foreign media
and independent newspapers in Zimbabwe. Media
attention has been focused on Zimbabwe following the
illegal occupation by squatters of more than one-
thousand white-owned commercial farms.
The year-old Daily News has been sharply critical of
the Zimbabwe government's crackdown on the opposition
political party, the Movement for Democratic Change,
and of the illegal land occupations.
Part of the clampdown on free political activity was
evident this week when dozens of white farmers and
their workers pledged support for the ruling party.
In front of government-controlled television, they
threw away T-shirts and membership cards for the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Last week, President Robert Mugabe said Zimbabwe's
white farmers were enemies of the state. The farmers
now say they have reached agreement with the
government to take no further part in supporting the
Movement for Democratic Change.
Votes from hundreds of thousands of workers on
Zimbabwe's commercial farms will play a major role in
parliamentary elections later this year.
The squatters -- among them veterans of Zimbabwe's
independence war -- have agreed to stop violence on
commercial farms. The farmers have pledged not to
evict the squatters.
Political analysts say the crackdown on the Movement
for Democratic Change, the occupation of white-owned
farms, the intimidation of farm workers is all part of
President Mugabe's strategy to win parliamentary
elections. (Signed)
NEB/PT/JWH/WTW
28-Apr-2000 12:55 PM EDT (28-Apr-2000 1655 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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