GRIFFIN SHEA, Harare | Wednesday
ZIMBABWEAN authorities have deployed troops in the streets of Harare to help police quell riots in the capital, where residents have taken to the streets and clashed with security forces for two days running to protest soaring food prices.
Shops closed, public transport shut down and schools turned students away from exams as protesters blocked major streets and police chased them with teargas and rubber bullets.
“It was terrible,” said one resident. “We had to put the kids inside. It’s like the Middle East. It’s a second Yugoslavia here.”
Police said at least 51 people have been arrested in the two days of riots.
Some major roads in the townships remained blocked with rocks and burning tyres for most of Tuesday, but police were grabbing people off the street and forcing them to clear the way.
Residents could not commute to their jobs as bus drivers refused to pass through the rioting neighbourhoods where some protesters were stoning passing vehicles.
The government deployed the National Reaction Force of special police and military troops in a bid to restore calm. Military helicopters buzzed over the townships, sometimes firing teargas into the crowds. Several vehicles were burnt, while two delivery trucks and a shop were looted in the capital.
The riots began this week in protest against increased prices for bread, sugar, public transport fares and other basic commodities.
Bread and sugar prices rose an average of 30% last week. Public transport fares have doubled during the course of the year.
Inflation and unemployment rates are hovering above 60%, in what has become Zimbabwe’s worst-ever economic crisis. Critics blame the nation’s woes on mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe’s government.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, whose party is planning a mass anti-Mugabe action, said the MDC had played no part in organising the protests.
But the fiery former union leader said that anger at the government was unavoidably spilling over into the streets.
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