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ZCTU National Labour Protest - Sept 13, 2006 - Index of articles
Mugabe
- Zimbabwe to act decisively against protests
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
(DPA)
September 30, 2006
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=15224
Harare - Zimbabwe will act decisively
on any threats to law and order, President Robert Mugabe said Friday,
a day after the UN here urged the authorities to show restraint
when dealing with protests. A defiant Mugabe, speaking to senior
ruling party members, repeated his long-standing charge that the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and former colonial
power Britain were behind recent trade
union demonstrations, which were quickly quashed by police.
More than 200 members of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were arrested and several beaten
after thwarted protest marches across the country on September 13.
Mugabe told the central committee of his Zanu PF that the protests
were staged so that government opponents could see whether the time
was right for an uprising. 'We happen to know that behind this ill-advised
probing attempt to brew instability was the MDC and its British,
and American and Western sponsors,' the 82-year-old president said
in televised comments. 'They indeed are challenging the very principle
of rule of law they are wont to chastise us for. We shall act and
act decisively against any threats to law and order, however couched,'
he said.
The comments came just one day after
the UN country team in Zimbabwe said it was dismayed by statements
issued by the authorities here that appeared to condone the use
of force and torture against peaceful demonstrators. But Mugabe
reiterated his hard-line stance against would-be protestors. 'They
will be making a very serious mistake to imagine we will stand idly
by in the name of democracy and human rights while they choose or
sponsor illegal activities against local authorities,' he said.
The Zimbabwe president, who has been in power for 26 years, accuses
the MDC of being a front for Western powers who he claims want to
effect regime change in this once-prosperous southern African nation.
The MDC did not take part in this month's ZCTU protest marches,
although the seven-year old party has promised to mount its own
mass action against the government.
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