From DPA, 21 September

Harare- More than 140 members of a Zimbabwean rights group were arrested in several towns Wednesday during demonstrations calling for a new constitution, a spokesman for the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) said. At least six demonstrators were assaulted by ruling party militias in Harare, NCA spokesman Earnest Mudzengi said. Most of the arrests took place in the eastern city of Mutare, Mudzengi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a telephone interview. The protests came exactly a week after police quashed countrywide trade union protests against poor pay and economic conditions. The demonstrations were meant to push for a new constitution and to show solidarity with members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions who were arrested and in some cases assaulted by police during last week’s demonstrations. Trust Maanda, a lawyer in Mutare, confirmed in a telephone interview that about 140 demonstrators had been arrested Wednesday for demonstrations around the border city. By late afternoon those arrested were in the process of each paying fines of 250 Zimbabwe dollars for conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace, Maanda said. Three people were arrested in the southern city of Masvingo, where more than 180 people participated in a demonstration, and another three were arrested in the central city of Gweru, Mudzengi said. In Harare six demonstrators out of a group of more than 200 were detained by members of a ruling party militia on Wednesday and assaulted before being released, Mudzengi said. “We are taking them to the hospital. One of them cannot even stand up to walk,” he said. There were no reported arrests from Bulawayo. A similar protest planned in the central town of Kadoma was thwarted by ruling party militiamen, he said.

From The Herald, 21 September
Source: WWW.ZwNews.Com