Zimbabwe police have said that a prayer meeting planned for the second city of Bulawayo on Saturday is illegal and they will respond accordingly, reports said on Friday.
The Save Zimbabwe Campaign, which unites churches, opposition, civic and labour groups, is due to hold a prayer meeting at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church on Saturday, more than a month after a prayer rally in Harare was banned and opposition leaders trying to attend beaten.
Police were quoted as saying on Friday that the meeting is illegal as the group has not obtained permission from the police four days ahead of the meeting, as required under stringent security laws.
”I am not aware of any earlier notification of the four days’ clear notice — and if they don’t follow the law, then the gathering is illegal,” police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena told the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
The national coordinator of the church-led coalition was not immediately available for comment. But church groups contend that the security laws do not prohibit religious gatherings.
Unconfirmed reports on Friday said two Bulawayo-based pastors had already been called in for questioning by police in connection with the meeting.
Police spokesperson Bvudzijena reportedly told the Herald that the Save Zimbabwe Campaign is a political gathering and not a prayer meeting.
A similar gathering in Harare on March 11 was violently broken up by police. Dozens of opposition activists were arrested and brutally assaulted in police custody.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who received a serious head injury at that meeting, told a press conference on Thursday that 600 activists from his Movement for Democratic Change had been abducted and tortured by police in the past three months.
Saturday’s planned prayer meeting is expected to be addressed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, an outspoken critic of President Robert Mugabe’s government.
The Herald accused United States ambassador Christopher Dell of helping to organise the meeting, because Dell was worried that the Zimbabwean story was dying down when the US was of the impression that pressure should be intensified against Harare. — Sapa-dpa