Riot police quashed labour union protests across Zimbabwe on Wednesday, beating and arresting union leaders and dozens of other protesters in a show of force by President Robert Mugabe's government.
Officers equipped with batons and teargas canisters swooped on central Harare, grabbing 15 protesters, including leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), witnesses said.
"We have been arrested. There are about 15 of us. We are now at Matapi police station," ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo told Reuters by telephone, adding that ZCTU Secretary-General Wellington Chibebe had also been arrested.
The ZCTU said the protesters were beaten and that numerous others were picked up while attempting to march in six other towns around the country. It said preliminary reports showed more than 180 people were under arrest, although this number could not be independently verified.
Police chief spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena could not immediately confirm any of the arrests at the marches, which appeared to attract only a scattering of participants.
Mugabe's government has vowed to crush unapproved demonstrations amid an economic disaster that has brought inflation to near 1,000 percent and left consumers struggling with shortages of basic commodities including food and fuel.
Harare says it is working to turn around the economy and on Wednesday the central bank unveiled nearly $500 million worth of mainly foreign loans it said would help ease the country's woes, including a $200 million facility from China.
A heavy police presence kept onlookers well away from the Harare march, which the ZCTU said was aimed at highlighting poor wages, high taxes and lack of access to anti-retroviral drugs to fight HIV/AIDS.
A number of youths loyal to Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF - who have been used to intimidate past protests - strolled through the streets wearing shirts reading "Proudly Zimbabwean", drawing furtive glances from passers-by.
Unions say workers have borne the brunt of a deepening economic crisis widely blamed on Mugabe's government, which critics accuse of a draconian political crackdown that has seen foreign trade and investment dry up.
Earlier the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has its roots in the ZCTU and has been the biggest challenge to Mugabe's 26-year rule, urged workers to come out in for the march and the security forces to show restraint. But in Harare only a small group managed to gather before police swooped, most likely due to fear of arrest.
At Harare airport, a South African youth delegation led by members of the country's Young Communist League (YCL) was deported on Wednesday, the latest South African group to find itself declared unwelcome by Mugabe's government.
Zimbabwe has in the past denied entry to delegations from South African labour unions, which generally take a much tougher line on Mugabe than South Africa's government.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies responsibility for Zimbabwe's economic woes. Mugabe, who travelled to Cuba for an international summit on the eve of the protests, dismisses his local opponents as puppets of Western countries he says want to topple him for seizing white owned farms for landless blacks.
Comments
Comments are closed.