Arrest those who disrupted MP public meetings: Speaker

Lovemore Moyo, the Zimbabwe's parliament speaker says he wants police to arrest known militants who violently disrupted four public meetings called by lawmakers on reforms to the nation's human rights laws.

Moyo said "These premeditated disturbances of public hearings resulted in the savage assaulting of an MP and journalists within Parliament building and its precincts.  This act is unprecedented both in terms of its primitiveness and contempt for the authority and mandate of Parliament, as well as in its violations of the Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act and the related Standing Orders of Parliament."

Moyo said Tuesday police must "move with speed" to apprehend militants who assaulted lawmakers and journalists at the Harare parliament on Saturday. Graphic photographs of the mob have appeared in the local media.

He said those who also disrupted provincial parliamentary meetings were following a political agenda of violence mostly blamed on loyalists of President Robert Mugabe.

No arrests have been made and police were not immediately available for comment.