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Harare bans public prayers, marches amid fears of anti-Mugabe protests
ZimOnline
May 18, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=12124

HARARE - Zimbabwe police have banned public rallies, marches and prayer meetings planned for next weekend to mark the government's controversial home demolition exercise last year, for fear the commemoration could easily turn into anti-government protests, organisers said on Wednesday.

To ensure the commemoration was pre-empted, the police also arrested several church, civic leaders and individuals leading preparations for various activities to mark the urban renewal exercise.

The religious and civic leaders, who were mostly arrested between Tuesday and Wednesday, were detained for brief periods and released after strong warning not to proceed with plans to remember the home demolition exercise.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CZC) that brings together churches, human rights groups, opposition parties, labour and students and was spearheading plans for the planned commemoration said the police ordered the cancellation of prayer meetings and rallies because they feared the organisers might turn them into anti-President Robert Mugabe protests.

"The police have cancelled all our programmes to commemorate the event. They advised us that we can no longer go ahead because they suspect we might end up turning commemorations into countrywide anti-Mugabe protests," CZC advocacy officer Itai Zimunya told ZimOnline.

Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said he had not been briefed by police commanders about the ban on prayers, rallies and public marches.

But Mohadi virtually endorsed the police action, saying: "Common sense however dictates that the police should not let events that have a potential of turning violent or have undesirable political connotations going ahead."

Zimbabwe has been on edge since main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in March that he would lead supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party in mass protests to force Mugabe to give up power to a transitional government that would pen a new constitution and organise fresh elections under international supervision.

Mugabe has warned Tsvangirai against mass action saying the opposition leader would be "dicing with death" if he ever attempted to instigate a Ukrainian-style popular revolt in Zimbabwe.

But Tsvangirai has been undeterred and next weekend begins touring rural areas - the last bastions of Mugabe's support - to try and win backing for mass protests from rural communities.

The CZC had planned to hold a rally next Saturday at Zimbabwe Grounds in Harare's Highfield working class suburb, as well as public marches in several towns and cities, where armed soldiers and police last year razed down thousands of backyard cottages and shantytowns leaving close to a million people homeless.

The rally and marches have now been declared illegal by the police, who also banned another commemorative public meeting that was to take place in Harare's Mbare working class suburb on Wednesday. Mbare, a stronghold of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, was one of the worst affected by the home demolition exercise.

University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer and fierce Mugabe critic, John Makumbe, who was to have addressed the Mbare meeting, was arrested and detained at Harare central police station for hours before being released.

In the second largest city of Bulawayo, police ordered the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance (ZCA) - a coalition of churches in the city - to cancel prayer meetings and a public march that organisers had said would see at least 15 000 people march for about five kilometres from Makokoba suburb into the city centre. Two ZCA pastors, Lucky Moyo and Promise Maneda, who were leading preparations for the weekend march were arrested by the police on Tuesday and released later on the same day.

ZCA spokesman Hussein Sibanda however said the marches and prayer meetings would go ahead because the police ban was illegal, adding that the church organisation was working on an urgent application to the High Court to request the court to bar the police from interfering with the march or prayer meeting.

The police have also summoned women rights activist Jenni Williams and Zimbabwe Progressive Teachers' Union secretary general Raymond Majongwe whom they want to question in connection with the planned commemoration of the home demolition exercise.

"Yes they (police) want to talk to me but they have not indicated what they want," Majongwe said. Williams could not be immediately reached to confirm whether she had met the police.

Bulawayo Catholic Archbishop and also a fierce Mugabe critic, Pius Ncube said the police had also wanted to speak to him but could not because he had been away.

"They (the police) cancelled planned marches to commemorate Operation Murambatsvina. They also quizzed a number of church leaders whom they suspect of having links with the event. They couldn't talk to me because I was away," Ncube said.

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary general Wellington Chibhebhe said the police raided the union's offices in the cities of Gweru and Chinhoyi offices and demanded workers at the offices to say whether the ZCTU was involved in plans to commemorate the home demolitions.

"They interrogated our office people there to find out about their involvement in pending mass action and the commemorations of Operation Murambatsvina (home demolition). The offices are now operational," Chibhebhe said.

The home demolition campaign that began in May and ended in July last year left at least 700 000 without shelter or means of livelihood after the police bulldozers pulled down shantytowns and informal business kiosks in an exercise defended by Mugabe as necessary to smash crime and keep Zimbabwe's cities beautiful.

Western nations, the local opposition, human rights groups and churches roundly condemned the home demolition exercise with UN envoy Anna Tibaijuka, who spent two weeks in Zimbabwe probing the urban renewal exercise, saying in a report that the clean-up exercise not only violated human rights but also possibly breached international law.

Tibaijuka said in addition to making nearly a million people homeless, the clean-up exercise also indirectly affected another 2.4 million people.

The Zimbabwe government rejected the UN report, saying Tibaijuka was under pressure from Western governments to produce a negative report that would tarnish Mugabe and his government's image. - ZimOnline

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