Zimbabwe police have arrested 48 women on a protest march against a new bill which government critics say is aimed at closing down operations of some private human rights groups, the protest organiser said.
Ms Jenni Williams, spokeswoman of civic organisation Zimbabwe Women Arise (WOZA), said the women and four men, who had been helping the women with logistics, were arrested in Norton, 30 kms south of Harare, after walking 400-km from Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo towards the capital.
Police spokesmen were not available to comment on the arrests. But Ms Williams said the women had embarked on the march last week to raise money and awareness for human rights work in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe's critics accused his government of abusing rights as part of a battle against its political opponents.
"This was a march to protest against the government's plans to enact the NGO (Non-Governmental Organisations) Bill which we all believe will be used as a repressive tool to ban and to control human rights work in Zimbabwe," she said.