VARIOUS: Human rights campaigner Adrian Lunga comments on current political situation in Zimbabwe

Record ID: 347250

  • Title: VARIOUS: Human rights campaigner Adrian Lunga comments on current political situation in Zimbabwe
  • Date: 3rd June 2003
  • Summary: (EU) HARARE, ZIMBABWE (FILE - AUGUST 12, 2002) (REUTERS) MV MUGABE AT HERO'S DAY CEREMONY; SLV MILITARY
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM; HARARE, ZIMBABWE
  • City:
  • Country: Zimbabwe United Kingdom
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4EW20KG6H4DA3UZW3ZRM8MNYI
  • Story Text: Zimbabwe police quashed opposition protests arresting party leaders and firing tear gas to stop demonstrations aimed at driving President Robert Mugabe from power.
    This week's protests, initiated by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), mark the opposition's latest attempt to tighten the screws on Mugabe, whom they accuse of driving Zimbabwe's economy to collapse with record inflation and unemployment and shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency.
    "You have over 70 percent unemployment right now. You are talking about the economy and the infrastructure that was well developed. We had 92 percent literacy in Zimbabwe. And now we have brain drain with all the people going to South Africa, Britain, Australia, New Zealand. The whole infrastructure, education, health and business is folding. And that is causing a lot of hard time for the ordinary people in Zimbabwe as well as the middle and upper classes. And that is why people have got to stage where they believe that enough is enough," said Adrian Lunga, a Zimbabwean human rights campaigner, based in the United Kingdom.
    In Harare, riot police fired tear gas and used water cannons at a crowd of about 6,000 University of Zimbabwe students attempting to march into the city centre, driving them back onto the campus.
    The city's central business district, where shops, banks and offices were largely closed, saw more violence as police beat up dozens of protesters and arrested others.
    In Highfield, a township on the capital's outskirts, police fired warning shots into the air and tear gas at a crowd of 500 protesters.
    The MDC said several party officials and legislators had been arrested and in some cases roughed up before the protests, the start of a week-long series of demonstrations dubbed a "final push" to force the 79-year-old Mugabe to step down.
    "I think, in terms of the opposition, they realise that if they did not organise such a campaign, they would lose the confidence of the people, and they needed to show the people that they were doing something. Before they wanted to do everything in a diplomatic way, using the due process. But now the people are fed up, and if they don't act, if the opposition and the civic organisations do not lead the people who loose faith in the, that would be disastrous for them, politically," said Lunga.
    Early on Monday (June 2), police detained Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, charging him with contempt of court for refusing to comply with a judge's order to call off the demonstrations.
    Tsvangirai was later released, but said the police crackdown appeared to have stopped many supporters from participating in the planned marches, described by the government as an illegal attempt to provoke a coup d'etat.
    The state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), which reflects the views of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, described Monday's protests as a flop, saying army and police patrols had maintained peace around the country.
    The state broadcaster did not report any clashes between protesters and police.
    In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, police sealed off the main city square to prevent opposition supporters from marching, witnesses said, while in the central town of Gweru police said 19 people had been arrested for trying to take part in marches or being armed with sticks and knives.
    Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, blames the crisis on sabotage by his domestic and international enemies, particularly those opposed to his policy of seizing white-owned farms for distribution to landless blacks.
    Opposition supporters acknowledged that Monday's harsh police response had stopped some protests, but said the week-long drive was still on.
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