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15
held during novel five-minute protests
IRIN News
November 22, 2006
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56477
HARARE - Fifteen students were arrested
as a group of Zimbabwean nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) held
the first of a planned series of five-minute lunchtime protests
across Zimbabwe on Wednesday.
"The protest is against the ever-increasing
cost of living, collapsing health sector, the demise of education,
food shortages, falling life expectancy, suffocation of democratic
space and violation of women's rights by the Zimbabwean government,"
said the organiser, Save Zimbabwe Convention, an alliance of NGOs
and churches.
Hooting car horns, shouting, whistling,
clapping hands and beating any object to make a noise, members of
political organisations, trade unionists, women's rights activists,
students and ordinary citizens brought the capital, Harare, and
the second city, Bulawayo, to a temporary halt during the lunch
break.
In Bulawayo, police arrested 15 university
students as they marched peacefully around the institution's campus
beating drums and pots, and singing revolutionary songs.
A small crowd of women, dressed in
black and beating pots, also marched in Bulawayo's city centre but
no one was arrested. As the clock struck 13:20, the scheduled beginning
of the march, cacophony engulfed the city, with motorists hooting
and some members of the public joining the protest by whistling.
Others, like clergyman Enoch Vilakazi
of the Bulawayo Roman catholic diocese, observed the five-minute
protest in prayer. "A significant group congregated at out church
and we prayed for the nation. We feel Zimbabwe needs divine intervention
for it to stand back on its feet and reclaim its normalcy."
In Harare, the organisers decided to
march to the market in a deliberate attempt to mislead the police
into believing that they would congregate outside parliament. The
plan to play hide-and-seek with law enforcement authorities appeared
to have worked because heavily armed police only arrived more than
15 minutes after the activists had melted into the crowd.
"The government has given clear signals
that it will not tolerate any peaceful demonstrations and that is
why we have had to resort to guerrilla tactics," said a student
as he distributed pamphlets to Harare residents about the growing
hardships.
A protest by the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions in September against poor salaries,
high taxation and a slow rollout of anti-AIDS drugs was stumped
by security forces, with a dozen unionists allegedly assaulted,
arrested and tortured. President Robert Mugabe defended the police
action.
"Combined, we can make a difference.
This is why we are saying all and sundry should come together and
take the ZANU-PF [ruling party] regime by its horns. We should make
it explicitly clear to the Harare administration that we are not
happy with what is happening in the country, and that we need a
normalisation of everything, ranging from our ailing economy to
the political field," commented Max Mkandla, spokesman for the Zimbabwe
Liberators Platform, another NGO network involved in organising
the demonstrations.
"Our noise is a symbol of our distress
at the way Zimbabwe has been governed, and a cry of hope for transformation,"
said Jonah Gokovah, spokesman for the Convention. He added that
although the initial plan was to hold lunchtime protests every Wednesday,
they were now considering a daily demonstration.
Zimbabwe's economy has gone into freefall
since Mugabe launched fast-track land reforms in 2000. Unemployment
levels have risen above 70 percent, with chronic shortages of foreign
currency, fuel and other basic commodities. The government blames
sanctions imposed by the West for its economic problems.
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