Harare - Zimbabwe police combed Harare's
streets rounding up suspected opposition supporters on Friday,
enforcing a clampdown on dissent after using batons and water
cannon to break up a protest that authorities had declared
illegal.
Police patrolled the usually bustling city centre in lorries
and on foot, witnesses said, firing volleys of tear gas to
disperse any crowds that attempted to gather as most shops and
business shut amid fears that the clashes could turn more
violent. Police also directed tear gas at journalists.
Friday's street demonstration was to have been the first in
a nationwide series of protests organised by the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, which accuses
President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government of state-sponsored
violence, corruption and economic mismanagement.
It was banned on Thursday by police, who said any
participants would be committing a crime, but more
than 100 MDC supporters defied that order before being chased by
baton-wielding officers from one of the city's main squares.
Denouncing what it labelled the actions of a fascist
government, the MDC called the protest off early on Friday after
armed police barred access to the party's Harare offices and its
court appeal against the ban failed.
"The constitution guarantees the right to demonstration ...
yet this fascist regime has denied and proscribed this right to
the people of Zimbabwe," MDC Vice President Tendai Biti told
reporters outside the court.
"...We have jumped from the frying pan into the fire after
the coup of November 2017... We don't accept the conduct of this
regime, the conduct of Mr Mnangagwa."
In Geneva, a spokesman for the U.N. human rights
commissioner urged the government to engage with citizens on
legitimate economic grievances and "stop cracking down on
peaceful protesters."
The series of demonstrations has been viewed a high-profile
test of Mnangagwa's ability to tolerate dissent in a country
tainted by a long history of repression. So far this year he has
failed to make good on promises of political and economic
reform.
Elected after the armed forces intervened to oust Robert
Mugabe, Mnangagwa has said he aims to break with the brutal
legacy that characterised much of his predecessor's 37 years in
power.
But the economy is mired in its worst crisis in a decade,
and Mnangagwa is struggling to convince the growing ranks of the
country's poor that his government's austerity measures and
reforms can trigger a recovery.
Zimbabweans had also expected last year's vote to usher in a
new dawn of expanded political rights and an end to the
country's international pariah status, but the elections instead
left the country more polarised.
APPARATUS OF STATE
In January, a violent security crackdown in Harare against
fuel demonstrations left more than a dozen people dead.
Days ahead of the planned Harare demonstration, six
political activists were abducted from their homes at night and
beaten by armed men, a coalition of rights groups said.
In another echo of the Mugabe era, the apparatus of state
was again out in full force on Friday and the city's streets
unusually quiet.
Witnesses saw police and armed soldiers searching buses,
taxis and private vehicles at checkpoints and randomly asking
for identity documents.
One woman was taken to hospital with a deep gash on her head
after baton-wielding police charged at MDC supporters.
Anger is mounting as Zimbabweans grapple with triple-digit
inflation, rolling power cuts and shortages of U.S. dollars,
fuel and bread - bringing back memories of the hyperinflation of
a decade ago that forced the country to ditch its currency.
"We want change because we are tired of promises. We are
tired, enough is enough," MDC member Patience Gurure told
Reuters moments before police dispersed the group she was in.
In a letter to church leaders published on Friday in the
state-owned Herald newspaper, Mnangagwa said the economic
hardship had its roots in sanctions imposed by the West more
than a decade ago as well as a severe drought this year.
He also said MDC leader Nelson Chamisa had rejected his
invitation to dialogue aimed at resolving Zimbabwe's political
and economic problems. Chamisa has said he will only sit down
with Mnangagwa if there is a neutral arbiter.
"The doors of national dialogue are still open to all
political leaders," Mnangagwa said.