ZIMBABWE: MUGABE ELECTION RALLY

(7 Apr 2000) English/Nat

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe held a rally of his party faithful on Friday to celebrate a new bill allowing the government to seize white-owned farmland without paying compensation.

While the rally was taking place in Bindura, political opposition groups were holding a gathering of their own in Harare to pray for peace.

A spokesman for the opposition groups said the hearts of the Zimbabweans have been scarred by the current political and economic chaos.

Crowds cheered and danced as Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, arrived in Bindura on Friday to address his ZANU-PF party faithful .

The Zimbabwean President had organised a rally here to celebrate a new law - a bill passed on Thursday allowing the government to seize white-owned farmland without paying compensation.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We are happy, overjoyed and therefore in a mood to celebrate that at last, at last the people of Zimbabwe have now, applied full sovereign right to determine their future."
SUPER CAPTION: Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe

The rally was also used to kick-start Mugabe's campaign for the national elections expected to take place at the end of May.

But it was the issue of reclaiming white farmland that had the audience captivated.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"And so it doesn't reject the principle of compensation, and this is to try and get Britain to realise, recognise that it has a colonial responsibility in regard to the issue of land which remains unsettled even after the Lancaster House conference."
SUPER CAPTION: Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe

While Mugabe supporters rallied over the prospect of further action against white farmers, Mugabe opponents rallied for peace.

In Harare the National Constitutional Assembly which is an alliance of political opposition groups and civic and church organisations, held a gathering to pray for peace in their homeland.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in heaven."
SUPER CAPTION: Priest

Some 2-hundred people attended the 'prayer-for-peace' in Harare's downtown Anglican Cathedral.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"So this is our commitment as citizens from different denominations and we are standing in our nation saying 'Yes there will be a political solution to our problems. Yes there may be an economic solution to our problems. But good economics and good politics has never healed the scars on the hearts of men and women. And the only thing that can heal the scars that politics and economics leaves on the hearts of men and women is when we genuinely fall in love with our country,
when in mutual respect we gather together in union for a just cause'."
SUPER CAPTION: Brian Kagoro, spokesman for the National Constitutional Assembly

It was the N-C-A which spearheaded the successful campaign for a 'NO'-vote in last February's constitutional referendum.

Last Saturday, a rally they organised against Mugabe turned violent as demonstrators found themselves under attack from Mugabe supporters.

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