The Hindu : Clashes erupt as protests continue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 04, 2003

International

International

Clashes erupt as protests continue

STOMPING OUT CRITICISM?: Zimbabwean riot police beat people during anti-Government protests in Harare on Tuesday. — AP

HARARE (Zimbabwe) JUNE 3. Police fired tear gas at protesters on Tuesday, as an Opposition strike against the increasingly repressive rule of the President, Robert Mugabe, entered its second day.

Opposition officials have vowed to press ahead with a planned week of national protest despite a harsh crackdown by police and troops who have arrested dozens of protesters.

Authorities were swift and brutal in trying to disperse crowds on Monday.

On Tuesday, police used tear gas against people gathered in the streets in the western Harare township of Warren Park, the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said in a statement. There were no reports of injuries.

Banks and most businesses were closed in the capital and traffic was light. Riot police were stationed throughout the city.

In other reports of unrest cited in the Opposition statement, ruling party militants had attempted to evict Opposition activists from their homes in Kwekwe.

The MDC said the actions brought the country's economy to a standstill and organisers pledged a week of similar actions they say will mark the most significant challenge to Mr. Mugabe's 23 years in office.

The Opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, said violence against protesters by police and the military would not deter the party's leaders and supporters.

Zimbabwe is facing its worst political and economic crisis since independence in 1980. Foreign aid, investment and loans have dried up amid political violence, state-orchestrated human rights abuses, the seizure of thousands of white-owned farms and disputed presidential elections last year.

International food aid has averted mass starvation, but Zimbabwe still faces annual 269 per cent inflation and acute shortages of currency, gasoline, medicines and other essential imports.

Opposition leaders were rounded up in police raids on Monday under draconian security laws allowing the Government to ban any gathering.

At least four other people suffered gunshot wounds in other demonstrations, and scores of others were forced to lie on sidewalks or the ground while police or soldiers beat them with rubber batons.

At least 154 people, most of them Opposition activists or officials, were arrested across the country on Monday, a police spokesman said in a statement.

Mr. Tsvangirai was arrested at his home in Harare early on Monday but he was later released.

His party lodged an appeal before the nation's Supreme Court against charges that he had defied a court order to call off strikes and demonstrations called on Monday through Friday.

He was scheduled to go to court later on Tuesday where he was to hear a request by the state to tighten bail conditions and restrict his movements in light of the court order, which declared the demonstrations illegal.

— AP

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