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Police defy court order, ban demonstration

    JOHANNESBURG

    Zimbabwe police on Friday ignored court orders and illegally squashed a demonstration in Harare by a pro-democracy group launching a proposed new national constitution, news reports said.

    Reports said that about 150 riot police, armed with teargas and batons and backed up by dogs, sealed off all entrances to the capital's central Africa Unity square where the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) was to launch the new draft document.

    NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku obtained a court order instructing police not to interfere with the demonstration, but the officer in charge of police at the square refused to accept it.

    The NCA earlier this week notified police of their intention to hold the march to launch the new draft constitution, NCA officials were quoted as saying. "The notification was as a matter of courtesy, because demonstrations are a constitutional right and there is no provision in Zimbabwean law for police to interfere with them unless they turn violent," an NCA official said.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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