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Defiant MDC call for peaceful rally despite police ban
Tererai Karimakwenda and Tichaona Sibanda, SW Radio Africa
January 22, 2008

http://swradioafrica.com/news220108/mdcrally220108.htm

The MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai has announced that the protest march organised for Wednesday will go ahead as scheduled, despite a police ban. The party was informed last minute on Monday that they would not be allowed to proceed with their "freedom march" even though they had notified the police weeks in advance.

The MDC secretary for Home Affairs, Sam Sipepa Nkomo, described the police action as "totally unreasonable, provocative and in bad taste." He added that most of their supporters were not aware of the police ban because there was no electricity in the country since Saturday, and communication was difficult, if not impossible.

Nkomo said: "To start with, the majority of our supporters do not tune in to all ZBC radio and TV channels because of its pro-ZANU-PF stance. I also believe that Wayne Bvudzijena was speaking to a dark world because our radios could not carry out his message."

This was in reference to reports that Assistant Police Commissioner Bvudzijena broadcast a series of statements all day Tuesday portraying the opposition party as a violent organisation. Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa heard these broadcasts on state run radio and said Bvudzijena accused party leader Morgan Tsvangirai of inciting chaos and violence against the government, during his address at a weekend rally in Highfields.

But Muchemwa, who was also at the rally, said Tsvangirai stressed that the Wednesday protests should be peaceful. The MDC leader also urged his supporters to show restraint if confronted by hostile elements.

Sipepa Nkomo accused Bvudzijena and the police of hypocrisy because two months ago they provided a police escort and allowed ZANU-PF supporters to run through the centre of town during their so-called "million march." Now the MDC was being denied the same privilege, even after following procedures as stipulated in the new rules signed into law by Robert Mugabe a week ago. Nkomo said they had believed that ZANU-PF was beginning to be sincere by signing new amendments into law, that govern the right to assembly.

"It's not a case of defying police orders but we are within the laws that allow us freedom to assemble, freedom to demonstrate without police interference," said Nkomo.

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