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Mugabe approves Zimbabwe constitution changes-radio

Posted on: Monday, 12 September 2005, 03:06 CDT

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has signed into law constitutional changes critics say further entrench his rule, less than two weeks after his ruling party pushed them through parliament, state radio reported on Monday.

The ZANU-PF party used its two-thirds parliamentary majority to approve amendments that allow the government to nationalize white-owned farms and impose travel bans on those calling for military action against Zimbabwe. They will also allow the reintroduction of a second legislative chamber, expected to be packed with the veteran leader's allies.

Zimbabwe radio said Mugabe told students in Cuba, where he is on a state visit, that elections for the Senate -- which the government says will improve the quality of legislation passed in the country -- would be held before the end of the year.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has slammed the latest amendments to the constitution, which Mugabe has now altered 17 times since independence from Britain in 1980, as "a serious assault on citizens' basic rights and freedoms."

Changes to land laws will effectively bar white farmers from challenging in courts the seizure of their property under the government's controversial land reform program, which critics say has destroyed commercial agriculture.

Critics say the clauses allowing the government to impose travel bans are yet another tool to suppress opposition to Mugabe's 25 year reign as the country grapples with an economic crisis widely blamed on his mismanagement.

Mugabe says his local opponents have conspired with foreigners to sabotage Zimbabwe's economy over his land seizures, which he argues were necessary to correct colonial imbalances which left minority whites in control of the bulk of the country's prime farmland.

Source: REUTERS

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