Journalist flees Zimbabwe

Peta said he felt intimidated under new laws

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- A leading Zimbabwe journalist has fled the country to South Africa saying he fears for his life.

Basildon Peta, who works for the UK newspaper The Independent, had been arrested under new security laws earlier this month though later released.

Peta, secretary-general of the Zimbabwean Union of Journalists, had been expected to be a key figure covering the presidential elections between March 9-10.

But he crossed the border to South Africa to be reunited with his wife and two children late on Thursday.

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"I felt my life was now in grave danger," Peta was quoted by Reuters as telling South African radio.

"I have been persecuted over the past two years on a daily basis, but I couldn't stand what was now happening in the past week since I was arrested and charged under the Public Order and Security Act and the publicity I was receiving thereafter."

Peta had been arrested briefly earlier this month after organising a demonstration against controversial new laws.

The security law, which was passed amid international controversy, prescribes a death sentence or life imprisonment for anyone convicted of "insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism."

The Commonwealth and the European Union have threatened to take action against President Robert Mugabe's regime, including sanctions and the freezing of assets, for fear the elections would not be free and fair.

Since then, a small group of 30 EU election observers have been granted permission to monitor the elections.

The government continues to crackdown on opposition rallies, the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) said on Friday.

Heavily armed Zimbabwe riot police sealed the offices of a civic group to thwart a street protest, they added.

Maxwell Saungweme of the NCA said about 24 police armed with guns, batons, sticks and teargas had surrounded the NCA office block outside central Harare.

The NCA had planned demonstrations on Friday to protest against the government's refusal to adopt a new national constitution.

"We are in the offices and they are milling outside," Saungweme told Reuters news agency.

The NCA is a coalition of civic rights campaigners, church groups, trade unions, opposition activists and professional bodies that has spearheaded demands in the last two years for a new national constitution.

"I think they are trying to stop the protest marches that we intend to lead later today...but we are not planning to call off the protests in Harare or other areas," Sangweme said.