| HARARE, Sept. 10 (Xinhuanet) --
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has granted amnesty to illegal
firearm holders who surrender their weapons in the next 90 days, the
Herald newspaper reported Tuesday.
The order came into effect on the publication of the latest
government gazette last Friday.
"During the period, every person having possession of any
firearm or ammunition in contravention of the Firearms Act and
anyother law shall surrender such firearm or ammunition to a police
officer at any station, which such firearm or ammunition shall,
subject to section 4 become the property of the state," read
part of the order.
The order is cited as clemency order number 2 of 2002: Amnesty in
respect of unlawfully held weapons. The firearms and ammunition
covered by the amnesty order include fully automatic machine
pistols, sub-machine guns or rifles, fully automatic rifles that
have been converted into semi-automatic rifles, semi-automatic
rifles that are convertible into fully automatic rifles.
Any bomb, grenade or missile or devices whether capable of use
with firearm or not, including any fuse, detonator or timing device
and any low or high explosives.
But the order states that during the same period police would
still retain their powers to arrest and confiscate illegal firearms
from suspects who do not surrender their licensed firearms illegally
in their possession.
Police spokesman Chief Bothwell Mugariri said some of the people
who possessed firearms illegally would have found the weapons as
lost property, especially weapons that remained hidden at the end of
the liberation war.
Other people, he said would have stolen them and some would have
failed to renew their licenses.
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