/ 16 September 2004

Women protest at SA embassy in Harare

About 50 women from the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) demonstrated outside the South African embassy in Harare on Thursday, calling for an end to human rights abuses in the country.

Singing protest songs and carrying banners calling for an end to harsh press and public-order laws, the women tied red ribbons on the embassy’s perimeter fence in ”memory of those killed and starved to death by the Zimbabwe regime”, said Woza head Jenni Williams.

Williams said the demonstration was timed to coincide with the opening of the Pan African Parliament in South Africa.

”We’re here to tell [South African President Thabo] Mbeki that we are going to end his quiet diplomacy in this country. We want more fire.”

The demonstration, which lasted for half an hour, ended peacefully when the women dispersed before police arrived. — Sapa