Journalists held over `false' report on war

Harare - Police in Zimbabwe arrested three journalists yesterday over a report published last October by the weekly Zimbabwe …

Harare - Police in Zimbabwe arrested three journalists yesterday over a report published last October by the weekly Zimbabwe Mirror which the government says was false. It was the second arrest this year of journalists critical of President Mugabe's government.

Police arrested the Zimbabwe Mirror reporter Grace Kwinjeh, the former managing editor, Mr Farai Mungazi, and his successor, Mr Fernando Goncalves, according to the Mirror's publisher and editor, Mr Ibbo Mandaza. The Zimbabwe Mirror, one of the country's few independent newspapers, reported that the family of Pte Douglas Maforere, who died while serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had been forced to bury only his decomposing head. The Zimbabwean army has denied the report and members of Mr Maforere's family have said they buried a complete body. The army has said it exhumed the body and confirmed it was complete, but reporters were not allowed to attend the exhumation.

Mr Mugabe has sent troops to the Congo to help President Laurent Kabila to quell a revolt backed by Uganda and Rwanda - an intervention which is unpopular in Zimbabwe.