> AP International / 17 Oct 2000
> Rioters March in Zimbabwe Streets
>
> by ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer
>
> HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Riots sparked by rising food prices spread Tuesday
> as crowds stoned cars, trashed suburban shops and marched through the
> streets. Police fired tear gas in response and soldiers patrolled the
> poorest neighborhoods.
>
> With Zimbabwe's economy in tatters, the government last week announced
> increases of up to 30 percent on bread, sugar and soft drink prices. Bus and
> taxi-van fares rose Monday. The new higher prices followed a series of
> increases in the cost of gasoline, milk and corn meal — a staple food in
> the country.
>
> Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said police arrested 26 people after
> clashes early Tuesday across the southern and western suburbs.
>
> There were no reports of serious injuries. In rioting Monday, 25 people were
> arrested for public violence, he said.
>
> Armored personnel carriers fanned out from an infantry barracks north of the
> capital. The troops were part of a so-called national reaction force and
> were sent only to “problem areas ” in impoverished districts, Bvudzijena said.
>
> Mobs trashed a police trailer used as a mobile command center in southern
> Harare, where two food stores were attacked and looted and cars were stoned.
>
> Protesters in Harare's poor western suburb of Mufakose threw up barricades
> of rocks and lumber and hurled stones at riot police, witnesses said.
>
> A military helicopter swooped overhead, apparently directing police
> operations and occasionally firing tear gas into cramped residential streets.
>
> Police also fired tear gas to disperse a crowd marching toward Harare's
> largest bakery in the suburb of Mbare. A news crew from the state Zimbabwe
> Broadcasting Corp. fled the suburb after rioters pelted their vehicle with
> stones, smashing the windows.
>
> Police chief Augustine Chihuri, quoted by state radio, said security forces
> were placed on full alert Tuesday and were taking stern measures to quell
> the unrest.
>
> Witnesses in the eastern township of Tafara said troops were deployed there
> soon after dawn and began conducting house-to-house searches. Some residents
> were force at gunpoint to clear makeshift barricades blocking streets.
>
> In Mufakose, witnesses said police used riot sticks and “sjamboks ” --
> leather horse whips — to disperse rioters manning barricades.
>
> “We have no jobs. We are hungry. We have nothing to eat. Yes, we are
> looting,” said one youth who identified himself only as Ephraim.
>
> Police spokesman Bvudzijena said mobs rampaged through a market at a bus
> depot, stealing food and vegetables.
>
> Sporadic clashes erupted as police patrolled Harare's southern townships.
>
> Rioters responded to price hikes Monday by rampaging through eastern
Harare,
> looting a bread truck and food stores, attacking other shops with stones
and
> torching a bus in the eastern suburb of Mabvuku. Mabvuku was quiet
Tuesday.
>
> Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980,
> with inflation reaching a record 70 percent and unemployment exceeding 50
> percent.
>
> The last food riots, triggered in 1997 by a 25 percent increase in the
price
> of corn meal, left five people dead. President Robert Mugabe deployed
troops
> to end civil unrest for the first time since independence.
>
> The main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, said Monday
> it will call for mass protests to pressure Mugabe to resign. The party's
57
> lawmakers also plan to call for Mugabe's impeachment.
>
> Mugabe's ruling party controls 92 seats in the 150-seat Parliament. The
> opposition's impeachment motion is expected to take several days to be
> placed on Parliament's agenda.
>
> AP-NY-10-17-00 1412EDT<
> 10/17/2000
>
> ------------
>
> Tuesday, October 17 11:49 PM SGT
>
> Troops out as riots over prices spread in Zimbabwe's capital
> HARARE, Oct 17 (AFP) -
> Zimbabwean authorities deployed troops Tuesday to quell riots in the
> capital, where residents took to the streets and clashed with security
> forces for a second day to protest at the soaring cost of living.
>
> In six townships around Harare, shops closed, public transport shut down,
> and schools turned students away from exams as protesters blocked major
> streets and police chased them with teargas and rubber bullets.
>
> "It was terrible," said a 26-year-old resident of Glen View, who asked to be
> named only as Julie. "We had to put the kids inside. It's like the Middle
> East. It's a second Yugoslavia here."
>
> At least 51 people have been arrested in the two days of riots, police
> spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said.
>
> Some major roads in the townships remained blocked with rocks and burning
> tyres for most of Tuesday, but police were grabbing people off the street
> and forcing them to clear the way.
>
> Residents in the townships of Mbare, Mufakose, Glen View, Budiriro,
> Highfield and Kuwadzana could not commute to their jobs as bus drivers
> refused to pass through the rioting neighborhoods where some protesters were
> stoning passing vehicles.
>
> By Tuesday afternoon, the government had deployed the National Reaction
> Force of special police and military troops in a bid to restore calm.
>
> "Obviously law and order will have to be re-established and it will be
> re-established. There is no government worth its salt that can countenance
> such lawlessness," presidential spokesman George Charamba told AFP.
>
> Military helicopters buzzed over the townships for most of Tuesday,
> sometimes firing teargas into the crowds.
>
> Police said several vehicles were burnt, while two delivery trucks and a
> shop were looted in the capital. One witness said that protesters
> intercepted a delivery van and raided thousands of loaves of bread which
> they then strew across the streets.
>
> Many residents complained of police brutality, saying teargas canisters were
> fired into homes and near schools. Some bystanders said police beat them
> without provocation.
>
> "They are just throwing teargas regardless if you are peaceful," said
> Blessing Chikanyairo, a 22-year-old book vendor in Mbare.
>
> Nhamo Nyagwambe, who lives in Glen View, said police came into his house
> where he had been sitting and started hitting him on the head with a teargas
> canister.
>
> In Glen View, protesters stoned a team of policemen which had run out of
> teargas.
>
> A police spokesman said one policeman was slightly injured when he was
> responding to a reported rape case allegedly committed by one of the rioters
> in Mabvuku.
>
> The riots began Monday in the neighboring townships of Mabvuku and Tafara,
> in protest against increased prices for bread, sugar, public transport fares
> and other basic commodities.
>
> Bread and sugar prices rose an average of 30 percent last week. Public
> transport fares have doubled during the course of the year.
>
> Inflation and unemployment rates are hovering above 60 percent, in what has
> become Zimbabwe's worst-ever economic crisis. Critics blame the nation's
> woes on mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe's government.
>
> "The old man should go, because he's ruining the economy," said Chikanyairo.
>
> Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai,
> whose party is planning a mass anti-Mugabe action, said the MDC had played
> no part in organizing the protests.
>
> But the fiery former union leader said that anger at the government was
> unavoidably spilling over into the streets.
>
> "It was very predictable that this anger will manifest itself in spontaneous
> reactions," Tsvangirai told journalists Monday.
>
> In January 1998, three days of food riots left at least nine people dead
> after government clamped down on the unrest. The riots were sparked by
> sudden price increases of staple foods in part blamed on the crash of the
> Zimbabwe dollar.
>
> But government officials at the time blamed the price rises on Zimbabwe's
> white minority, which exerts a disproportionate control over the economy.#
> gs-sn-jh/nb
>
> --------------------
>
> Tuesday, October 17 8:54 PM SGT
>
> Zimbabweans run riot over high cost of living
> HARARE, Oct 17 (AFP) -
> Rioters clashed with police Tuesday in Zimbabwe's capital Harare, where
> protestors angry at the soaring cost of living blocked roads and built
> barricades for a second day running.
>
> Residents from at least six working-class suburbs used rocks, boulders and
> burning tires to set up barriers along major roads, blocking hundreds of
> people from travelling to work.
>
> Witnesses said a bus was burnt, together with several cars, while two
> delivery trucks and a shop were looted in the capital.
>
> Stores, food outlets and fuel stations were shut, while anyone seen
carrying
> bread, whose price went up by 30 percent last week, was beaten up by
> protesters who have demanded a bread boycott, witnesses said.
>
> AFP journalists who drove around Mbare and Glen View saw most roads still
> barred for the better part of Tuesday.
>
> On Monday, hundreds of residents in the Harare townships of Mabvuku and
> Tafara began protesting against increased prices for bread, sugar, public
> transport fares and other basic commodities.
>
> The cost of living has sky-rocketted in Zimbabwe in recent months, with
> inflation hovering at more than 60 percent and economic hardships forcing
> firms to lay off workers or close shop.
>
> Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told AFP that Tuesday's riots had broken
> out in the townships of Mbare, Mufakose, Glen View, Budiriro, Highfield and
> Kuwadzana and that police had moved in to quell the protests.
>
> One witness said that protesters intercepted a delivery van and raided
> thousands of loaves of bread which they then strew across the streets.
>
> As helicopters buzzed overhead, heavily armed riot police with shields and
> batons fired teargas to drive people from the streets, including workers
> trying to commute to their workplaces.
>
> Residents complained of police brutality and accused them of firing teargas
> indiscriminately and at times into the neighbourhood.
>
> "They are just throwing teargas regardless if you are peaceful," said
> Blessing Chikanyairo, a 22-year-old book vendor in Mbare.
>
> Nhamo Nyagwambe, who lives in Glen View, said police came into his house
> where he had been sitting and started hitting him on the head with a teargas
> canister.
>
> In Glen View, protesters stoned a team of policemen which had run out of
> teargas.
>
> A police spokesman said one policeman was slightly injured when he was
> responding to a reported rape case allegedly committed by one of the rioters
> in Mabvuku.
>
> The government was expected to give its reaction to the unrest after the
> weekly cabinet meeting Tuesday, but presidential spokesman George Charamba
> said law and order would be re-established.
>
> "If law and order is threatened obviously we have an obligation, a
> constitutional obligation to re-establish it," Charamba told AFP.
>
> Police said 25 people were arrested in connection with Monday's protests.
>
> Critics blame Zimbabwe's acute economic crisis on mismanagement by President
> Robert Mugabe's government.
>
> "The old man should go becasue he s ruining the economy," said Chikanyairo.
>
> Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai,
> whose party is planning a mass anti-Mugabe action, said the MDC had played
> no part in organizing the protests.
>
> But the fiery former union leader said that anger at the government was
> unavoidably spilling over into the streets.
>
> "It was very predictable that this anger will manifest itself in spontaneous
> reactions," Tsvangirai told journalists Monday.
>
> Some students have not written end-of-year exams because the riots prevented
> them from attending classes and in some cases shut down schools.
>
> In January 1998, three days of food riots left at least eight people dead
> after government clamped down on the unrest.
>
> The riots were sparked by sudden price increases of staple foods in part
> blamed on the crash of the Zimbabwe dollar.
>
> But government officials at the time blamed the price rises on Zimbabwe's
> white minority, which exerts a disproportionate control over the economy.#
>
> ----------------------
>
> Tuesday October 17, 1:34 PM
> Zimbabwe police fight food price protesters
> By Cris Chinaka
>
> HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean riot police fired teargas and fought youths
> brandishing stones and sticks in three Harare townships on Tuesday as food
> price riots appeared to spread around the capital, witnesses said.
>
> In Glen Norah township, about 20 km south of the capital, police withdrew
> after a clash with about 300 youths, some apparently as young as 12, who
> barricaded roads with boulders.
>
> The crowd turned private cars back and began walking towards the capital as
> police appeared to wait for new supplies of teargas and other riot-control
> equipment.
>
> Witnesses said police had moved against a huge crowd in Mufakose, west of
> central Harare, after youths started stoning vehicles and setting old car
> tyres on fire. Roads in the high density township had been barricaded with
> rocks, logs and dustbins overnight.
>
> "The police are firing teargas and people are fighting back with stones and
> sticks, and there is chaos in quite a number of areas here," one resident said.
>
> In Mbare township, southwest of Harare's central business district,
> residents said police had fired teargas at protesters near the second
> largest state radio broadcasting studio after they tried to march to the
> city centre.
>
> "They are chasing people all over, but the people are coming back at them
> with stones," one said.
>
> In Mbare, home to some of Harare's poorest residents, a truckload of soft
> drinks was looted near a market called Mupedzanhamo, which means "fighter
> against poverty", witnesses said.
>
> INFLATION RUNNING OVER 60 PERCENT
> Soft drink prices rose by up to 30 percent early this month.
>
> According to government figures, annual consumer price inflation is running
> at 62 percent and more than half the workforce is unemployed.
>
> President Robert Mugabe, whose 20-year rule in the former Rhodesia has come
> under pressure from the new Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was out of
> the country when the violence erupted on Monday.
>
> MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was questioned by police last week and could
> face prosecution for warning that Mugabe could be ousted in a popular
> uprising if he did not step down.
>
> MDC legal secretary David Coltart said on South African radio the riots had
> not been triggered by the MDC, but were a spontaneous popular reaction to
> inflation and economic mismanagement.
>
> The official Herald newspaper quoted Information and Publicity minister
> Jonathan Moyo as denouncing MDC calls for a mass protest.
>
> "Right now the only mass action that the people need is the five million
> hectares of land that must be acquired before the rainy season," Moyo said
> in reference to government plans to seize over 3,000 white farms for a black
> peasant resettlement scheme.
>
> Police maintained a heavy presence in Mabvuku and Tafara townships where
> they had also used teargas in running battles against thousands of rioters
> on Monday.
>
> Public transport operators halted services after at least three buses were
> burned in Monday's rioting, which forced schools and shops in the affected
> townships to close.
>
> The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe has criticised the food price riots, and
> urged people to register their anger by boycotting specific products.
>
> "Consumers should register and exercise their power through passive but
> effective resistance," it said in a statement. #
>
> ------------
> Independent (UK)
>
> Opposition victims of Zimbabwe poll violence sue Mugabe in US
> By Alex Duval Smith in Harare
> 15 October 2000
>
> Four opposition supporters who were victims of government-orchestrated
> violence ahead of this year's elections in Zimbabwe are suing President
> Robert Mugabe in a New York court for crimes including murder and torture
> because, they claim, the rule of law has broken down in their own country.
>
> The four members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), including one
> MP, hope to raise the profile of their groundbreaking case when they meet
> Mary Robinson, the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, in Geneva
> tomorrow.
>
> They are suing the veteran Zimbabwean president and the country's foreign
> minister, Stan Mudenge, under the same legislation used in August by a
> Manhattan federal jury which ruled that the former Bosnian Serb leader,
> Radovan Karadzic, should pay $745m to a group of women who were raped and
> tortured during his rule.
>
> The Zimbabweans' Washington-based lawyer, Theodore Cooperstein, said:
> "Papers were served on the defendants on 7 and 8 September when they were in
> New York. They did not take advantage of the 20 days they had to respond and
> now I am awaiting a hearing and, later, a judgment."
>
> Unlike Karadzic, the Zimbabwean foreign minister and president are not known
> to have engaged a lawyer and appear intent on ignoring the civil case.
> According to Mr Cooperstein, his clients are after a judgment which will
> allow them to seek seizure of the defendants' assets anywhere in the world.
> The plaintiffs are seeking damages in excess of $400m.
>
> Adella Chiminya Tachiona's husband, Tapfuma, was acting as driver and agent
> for the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai when ruling party supporters dragged
> him from his car, beat him and doused him with petrol before burning him to
> death on 14 April.
>
> Mrs Chiminya Tachiona, a 34-year-old school clerk with two children, said:
> "I would really like to apply for political asylum in Britain but I am not
> sure how to go about it. We do not have ways of seeking redress for what
> happened to us in Zimbabwe because the government either ignores the courts
> or makes new laws to suit itself."
>
> The four plaintiffs also include Evelyn Masaiti, an elected MP who claims
> she suffered months of intimidation and murder threats; Maria Stevens, the
> widow of a white farmer; and an unsuccessful MDC candidate whose lookalike
> brother was murdered.
>
> The candidate, 31-year-old Elliot Pfebve, who was running for the bitterly
> contested Bindura seat, said: "About 300 police and war veterans armed with
> iron bars and axes came to my house on 29 April, started fighting with my
> father and demolishing my home.
>
> "Then they took my brother, Matthew, who looked very much like me, and they
> tied his hands with wire and beat him until he died. I have to live with the
> fact that the attackers were actually after me," said Mr Pfebve, a computer
> engineer.
>
> Three men were jailed for the attack on Matthew Pfebve but it is not clear
> on what charge. If the charge was anything less than murder, the three will
> be released unconditionally as a result of the presidential pardon for
> "politically motivated crimes" which was announced last week. Only murder
> and rape were excluded by President Mugabe's controversial pardon which
> covers the period from January to July.
>
> The MDC claims that 32 people died in violence linked to a referendum on
> Zimbabwe's constitution in February and the parliamentary election in June,
> in which the year-old opposition party won 57 out of 120 constituencies.
>
> The New York civil suit, under the Alien Tort Act - initially introduced in
> 1789 to punish pirates on the high seas - and the 1991 Torture Victim
> Protection Act, seeks to prove that the laws of civilised nations, including
> universally accepted standards of human rights, have been violated.
>
> It is likely that Judge Victor Marrero in the southern district court of New
> York will find President Mugabe and Mr Mudenge guilty and award damages.
> However, it is much less certain that the plaintiffs - who hope to expand
> their case into a class action - will succeed in tracking down any assets
> held by the defendants in foreign countries. Despite claims that President
> Mugabe is corrupt and has spirited money out of Zimbabwe, no one has ever
> proved it. #
>
> ================
>
>
>
"States of Unrest" | IMF/ WB Struggles | PGA
|
