ZIMBABWE: Police in Zimbabwe fired live bullets and tear gas to disperse small-scale anti-government protests, and arrested the opposition leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, as a week-long national strike and demonstrations got under way yesterday. Andrew Meldrum reports
Confronted with the determination of Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to take its supporters to the streets in public protests, President Robert Mugabe's government responded with a huge show of force by the police and army.
Armoured vehicles fitted with guns and water cannon patrolled the capital and police circled the city with fortified roadblocks, according to residents in the capital, Harare. Military helicopters hovered overhead, on the lookout for any large protest gathering.
In a pre-emptive move to prevent Mr Tsvangirai from leading a public protest, police arrested him early yesterday and charged him with attempting to overthrow the government, according to his lawyer, Mr Innocent Chagonda. Mr Tsvangirai was taken to court under guard to attend his long-running treason trial. He was later released.
At least six MDC members of parliament were also arrested, including Mr Job Sikhala, who earlier this year was tortured in police custody, according to medical evidence and testimony admitted in court. Police also arrested the MDC mayors of Harare and Bulawayo, according to lawyers. All were still in custody yesterday afternoon.
"Deploying the armed forces on the streets of Zimbabwe in an attempt to prevent the people from exercising their basic democratic right to engage in peaceful protest is a clear demonstration that the regime has lost the support of the people," said MDC spokesman Mr Paul Themba Nyathi. "No amount of violence can crush people's desire for peaceful democratic change."
The public reacted angrily to Mr Tsvangirai's arrest. "People are really mad about that," said one supporter who did not want to be identified. "But the government is afraid to put him in jail. They know if they put him in cells, people will erupt."
The five-day national strike started with a shut-down of all commercial and industrial activity in Harare, Bulawayo and other major cities. Workers and business owners are furious with the Mugabe government for the hyperinflation - currently at 269 per cent - and shortages of food, fuel and even banknotes.
The government's show of force and tough warnings by cabinet ministers did not stop several thousand people amassing for protests.
An estimated 5,000 people marched from the western Highfields township towards the city centre, but they were dispersed by police firing shots in the air and tear gas.
Several of the protesters were arrested and at least three people were injured by gunfire, said medical workers.
A Reuters photographer witnessed police in Harare forcing about 50 people, some of them women, to lie on the street while they beat them with batons and whips.