Protests will continue, Zimbabwe opposition says

Opposition officials in Zimbabwe vowed to continue a week of anti-government strikes and protests today despite a tough crackdown by President Robert Mugabe’s security services.

Riot police were stationed throughout the capital Harare, where banks and most businesses remained shut. Few cars were on the streets.

Police and troops in armoured cars fired guns and tear gas and assaulted protesters to break up yesterday’s protests. There were no reports of fresh violence overnight.

At least 154 people, mostly opposition activists or officials, were arrested across the country yesterday, police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said.

Among them was Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). He was later released, but his party lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court against charges he had defied a court order to call off this week’s strikes and demonstrations.

He was due to appear in court later today where he will hear a request by the state to tighten his bail conditions and restrict his movements in light of the court order which declared the demonstrations illegal.

Tsvangirai is already on trial for treason. He and two senior MDC officials are accused of plotting to assassinate Mugabe, a charge they vehemently deny, saying the government has tried to frame them. They could be executed if found guilty.

The MDC said this week’s protests will mark the most significant challenge to the dictatorial Mugabe’s 23 years in office.

Tsvangirai said violence against demonstrators by police and the military did not deter the MDC leadership or its supporters.

One demonstrator was shot in the leg yesterday, and scores of others were forced to lie down while police or soldiers beat them with rubber batons.

“There is no doubt that Zimbabweans have overwhelmingly heeded our calls despite the security agents’ repressive methods,” Tsvangirai said. “By the end of this week Zimbabweans will have driven a message home to Mugabe that they are fed up with the state of affairs in this country.”

Bvudzijena said police were forced to fire in the air in west Harare’s Highfield township after opposition protesters tried to use a group of school children as human shields – an allegation the opposition denied.

MDC officials said three people suffered gunshot wounds in that incident.

The state-run Herald newspaper said one man was stoned to death during violent clashes between MDC and ruling party supporters in Mbare township.

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 the conduct of disputed presidential elections last year.

Only international food aid has averted mass starvation. Zimbabwe faces record 269% inflation and acute shortages of hard currency, local money, food, fuel, medicines and other essential imports.

Foreign businessmen collaborating with strikers would lose their work permits and would have to leave the country, a government official said.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has condemned the Zimbabwean government’s actions and called for Mugabe to resume negotiations with the opposition.

“The arrests of MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai, other MDC MPs and activists are further evidence that the government of Zimbabwe is not willing to extend to its people their basic right of peaceful protest,” he said.

In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged organisers to ensure that the mass action remains peaceful and within the law, and he urged the government to respect basic freedoms of expression and assembly.

He also reiterated his readiness “to contribute to the search for a negotiated solution of the serious difficulties facing the country”.