OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday
MILITANT war veterans threatened on Tuesday to step up their attacks on businesses in Zimbabwe, during their alternative May Day rally held after a main rally organised by labour unions.
”We want everyone to bring their problems to us for settling,” said firebrand war vet leader Chenjerai Hunzvi, in a speech at Harare’s Rufaro soccer stadium.
Fellow war vet leader Joseph Chinotimba assembled a list of about 20 employers he said his followers would target for raids to settle labour problems.
The rally began peacefully until Chinotimba tried to enter the stadium to deliver a speech. More than 100 supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) crowded onto the field and blocked Chinotimba from reaching the microphone.
Chinotimba and about 30 of his supporters disappeared behind the MDC supporters, who shouted ”We want peace” and shook their hands in the open-hand wave that symbolises allegiance to MDC.
An armoured car carrying about 30 riot police rolled onto the field, and managed to separate Chinotimba and his supporters from the rest of the crowd, before clearing the field.
During the last month, the war vets have raided scores of companies and beaten or harassed managers, claiming they were acting in the name of disgruntled employees.
Chinotimba invited his few hundred supporters in the crowd to name companies they wanted to see raided.
His list included international electronics giant Philips, two major Zimbabwean supermarket chains, the national railway, the state postal and telecom company, the national bus line, a funeral home and a cooking oil company.
One company named by Chinotimba, Fawcett Security, already had its Bulawayo offices raided by war veterans on Monday, in a raid of three major security companies in the city.
The threat comes amid a campaign by President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party to bolster his support among urban workers ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
ZANU-PF failed to win any urban constituencies in last year’s parliamentary elections, losing them all to the MDC.
His militant followers are now transferring to Zimbabwe’s cities the violent tactics of intimidation and harassment they used in rural areas when they occupied 1_600 white-owned farms ahead of the June parliamentary elections.
At least 34 people died in political violence ahead of the polls, and thousands more were beaten, raped or kidnapped. -AFP
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