Security thwarts Zimbabwe protest

Security forces have used force to prevent protests this week

The main opposition party in Zimbabwe has criticised the mass deployment of ruling party militants in the capital to intimidate protesters.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), called on its supporters to turn out in force on Friday for what it calls D-Day, the end of a week of protests against President Robert Mugabe.

The MDC placed adverts in the independent press saying it wanted to stage the biggest mass demonstrations across the country since independence, despite state repression.

But on Friday, large numbers of security forces and ruling party militia members, wearing white T-shirts with the words "No to Mass Action" on them, were visible in central locations in the capital where marches were due to take place.

An MDC statement on Friday said this is "a clear attempt to provoke violence and bloodshed".

The opposition party must rapidly get its act together

The Daily News

Protest diary

It also bemoaned the money spent by the government on printing T-shirts "when such resources should be channelled towards bringing fuel and food to a starving nation".

"It shows quite clearly that the Mugabe regime's priorities are warped," the party said.

Security forces have also been patrolling in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, at the City Hall where the MDC were planning to congregate.

Crackdown

The five-day general protest called by the MDC was billed as an attempt to end President Mugabe's authoritarian grip on power and address the country's deep political, economic and social crises.

Mugabe has defended the use of force on protesters

But planned street protests failed to take off as government security forces cracked down, arresting about 500 MDC supporters, according to the opposition.

The United States State Department has described Mr Mugabe's response to the protests as an ongoing wave of intolerance and brutality.

However, there has been some criticism in Zimbabwe of the opposition's alleged lack of a credible strategy.

The Daily News, for example, says that after a week in which many of them have been arrested or beaten up, Zimbabweans are entitled to ask the MDC what comes next.

"The opposition party must rapidly get its act together and come up with an imaginative and focused plan that can save Zimbabwe now," the paper said.

Mugabe 'hypocrite'

President Mugabe defended the use of force by his security forces, telling South Africa's SABC television news that they were doing their job of maintaining peace and stability.

"We don't want to make our people suffer. We want our people to be free to express their free views," he said.

"It is sad when we are forced as a government to use teargas against our own youth who are being misled, but we have to do it in the interests of peace and security."

The High Court declared the MDC mass action illegal and warned that demonstrators would face "the full wrath of the law" if they defied the ban on the protests.

Police say that at least 40 MDC youths were arrested at a Bulawayo house where, it is alleged that they were found manufacturing petrol bombs.

A BBC reporter in Zimbabwe said that many schools have been closed and transport has been severely affected by the mass action.

Only 25% of shops and almost all banks were reported to be open on Thursday in Bulawayo, while in the capital, Harare most businesses remained closed, with less than half the shops open in the city centre.

On Friday most shops remained shut in Harare.