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MDC stages successful protest march, despite police crackdown
Tichaona Sibanda, SW Radio Africa
January 23, 2008

http://swradioafrica.com/news230108/mdcmarch230108.htm

The political crisis in Zimbabwe deepened on Wednesday after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was prevented from leading a protest march, calling for a change to the country's electoral laws.

Tsvangirai, together with two of his closest aides, were taken by police from their homes at 4am but were released soon after 8am. The other two who were detained were Ian Makone, the party's director for elections, and Dennis Murira, a top aide to Tsvangirai. They were all released without charge.

The MDC leader told Newsreel from his home in Harare that the police had wanted to know what their plans were for the protest rally. 'I told the police I had nothing to say to them because we had a court case which was going to hear our appeal against the police ban. They also threatened to come after me if our supporters defied the ban and went ahead with the protest march.'

At the urgent court hearing Harare magistrate Priscilla Chigumba allowed the MDC to proceed with their rally but prevented them from marching in the streets of the capital, giving possible disruption of traffic as her reason for ordering them to go straight to their meeting point.

She told the hearing; 'The MDC marchers should withdraw peacefully and in a non-riotous behaviour, and proceed to the Glamis Stadium.'

The ruling was met with wild jubilations from MDC activists gathered outside the court. But before the activists could march, heavily armed police in riot gear began breaking up the groups of supporters. Running battles broke out between the police and the protestors but Tendai Biti, the party's secretary-general, managed to lead the supporters to the stadium. Tsvangirai did manage to travel to the stadium and address the crowd, which the MDC claims was close to 20,000.

In his address the MDC President said Wednesday's protest march was only the beginning and that nothing was ever going to stop him from leading the protests from the front. He blamed Mugabe for what was happening in Zimbabwe and said he had reneged on promises given at the talks to Thabo Mbeki, that the elections would be free and fair.

Police in Harare had originally given the MDC permission for the protest march, but cancelled it on Monday saying that new intelligence suggested the protest would turn violent.

Commenting on Tsvangirai's arrest, Biti said it only goes to show they are dealing with a 'fascist party and hooligans' who are not yet ready to recognise that the people of Zimbabwe are suffering.

'Effectively we are dealing with reckless people, violent people, bankrupt people, people with no plans for Zimbabwe,' Biti said.

The outspoken MP for Harare East said even in the face of a court order allowing them to march to Glamis stadium, a few kilometres west of the city, the police still beat and tear gassed their supporters.

'This is typical behaviour you see in a dying horse. The days of dictatorship are numbered. We will live to fight another day,' he said.

This was the first time this year that a crowd had gathered to express its opposition to the regime and demand free and fair elections. Luke Tamborinyoka, the MDC director of information, said a number of their activists were abducted and taken to the Zanu-PF headquarters.

'Police made it very difficult for our people to proceed to the Glamis stadium in compliance with the court ruling. This merely confirms some of the reasons why we are marching; we are merely marching for equal access to the media. The mere fact there is a media blitz of misinformation also confirms one of the reasons why we want equal space in the media,' Tamborinyoka said.

Earlier in the day, an aide to Tsvangirai described the scene to Newsreel when he drove around the streets of the capital. He said he saw many opposition activists being beaten and many others being arrested. Some of the peaceful protesters were waving white handkerchiefs, to emphasise their peaceful intent.

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