Posted on 08/30/2005 10:23:09 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Lawmakers endorsed a constitutional overhaul Tuesday that sharply restricts property rights and allows Zimbabwe's government to deny passports to its critics.
Ruling party representatives erupted into cheering, singing and dancing after rallying 103 votes - more than the two-thirds required to pass the 22-clause Constitutional Amendment Bill. Just 29 of Parliament's 150 members opposed the legislation, which now goes to President Robert Mugabe to sign into law.
Local and international lawyers have described the amendments as the greatest challenge yet to civil liberties in this increasingly autocratic country. But Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said they would "close the chapter of colonization."
The amendment bill, the 17th since independence from Britain in 1980, strips landowners of their right to appeal against expropriation and allows the government to deny passports if it is deemed in the national interest. It also creates a 66-seat Senate, which critics charge the ruling party will use to increase its patronage powers.
Lovemore Madhuku, whose National Constitutional Assembly reform alliance mobilized opposition to Mugabe's attempt in 2000 to entrench his rule indefinitely, predicted swift implementation of the new changes.
"I think (Mugabe) is likely to sign the bill into law in the fastest possible time - even within four days or so," Madhuku said. "He wants to have elections for the Senate by October."
Madhuku said the amendments add to a host of repressive measures already imposed by Mugabe's government.
"But in time, it will eventually collapse," he said. "Do you think the people are going to accommodate this for all time?"
There had been concerns within Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front that the party might not mobilize enough support to pass the legislation after it cleared a preliminary ballot with just 61 votes to 28.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which has 41 seats in the 150-member Parliament, and the lone independent legislator, Mugabe's former propaganda chief Jonathan Moyo, had vowed to fight the bill.
The opposition MDC says approval of the amendments will destroy any hope of agreement with Western donors for desperately needed aid.
A team from the International Monetary Fund was wrapping up a visit this week to reassess Zimbabwe's economic crisis ahead of a Sept. 9 board meeting that could expel the country for failing to make payments on $295 million in arrears.
The seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans, combined with years of drought, have crippled the country's agriculture-based economy. Some 4 million are in urgent need of food aid in what was once a regional breadbasket, according to U.N. estimates.
"close the chapter of colonization."
Enter the new chapter on totalitarianism.
"close the chapter of colonization."
Enter the new chapter on totalitarianism.
Lovemore Madhuku? No thanks - I'm full.
Where is the liberal outrage at these abuses of human rights?
Where is all the articles condeming this in the MSM?
Go easy on the man, if I read this correctly, he's part of the opposition.
Sad. I pray that one day an African nation will arise that puts the past and archaic traditionalism behind it and move forward. If not, then my people should become extinct and allow others to take their place. Africans can't blame this on anyone but themselves.
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