More on Zimbabwe's Political Situation

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe is mulling a law to bar foreign human rights groups and block foreign funding for local bodies working in political governance-related issues, including human rights, according to a draft seen by Reuters on Friday.

One aid worker said this would close many rights groups.

President Robert Mugabe, who accuses some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of working with Western countries to undermine his government, said this week Zimbabwe planned a law to "ensure rationalization of the macro-management of all NGOs."

"We cannot allow them to be conduits or instruments of foreign interference in our national affairs," he said.

The bill has not been officially published, but the draft said all NGOs would have to register with a state council and no foreign organization could operate "if its sole or principal objects involve or include issues of governance."

It defined these as "the promotion and protection of human rights and political governance issues."

"No local government organization shall receive any foreign funding or donation to carry out activities involving or including issues of governance," the draft said.

An official with a leading NGO who declined to be identified said the bill in its current form was likely to see the closure of many rights groups in the same way media laws enacted in 2002 had led to some publishing houses being forced to shut down.

"It would be impossible for any organization to operate without foreign funding," he told Reuters.

The bill can be amended before initial publication and would need to be approved by parliament, in which Mugabe's ZANU-PF party enjoys a comfortable majority, before passing into law.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, accuses Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler of leading a Western campaign to oust him over his government's seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

He denies the land seizures are responsible for food shortages which have plagued the country since 2001, and says some foreign aid agencies have used what he calls a drought-induced crisis to push a political agenda under the guise of food distribution.