HARARE, Zimbabwe, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Twelve members of a South African trade union were expelled from Zimbabwe Wednesday for refusing to agree to government limits on who they met, the BBC said.
Members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions delegation were held under armed guard at Harare International Airport for much of Tuesday, following a cabinet decision to cut short their visit.
The government of hard-line President Robert Mugabe described their trip to assess conditions in the country as "not acceptable," and the cabinet then ordered the deportation after the group refused to guarantee not to meet with certain civic groups.
Among the groups the mission had been told not to meet were the Zimbabwe Crisis Coalition, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the National Constitutional Assembly, which the government view as politically linked to the opposition.
Zimbabwe defended the decision to expel the unionists, saying Zimbabwe was not an extension of South Africa.
