ZIMBABWEAN police brutally broke up a protest on Tuesday in Harare by about 200 people demanding the government adopt a more democratic constitution.
The protest, organized by the pro-democracy National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), was banned by police under a tough security law passed ahead of last month’s presidential election.
About 200 people defied the ban and marched through the centre of Harare during the lunch hour, carrying banners with the NCA logo and calling for a new constitution.
But the protest only lasted about 15 minutes, as about 20 riot police blocked the road and began severely beating the protesters with batons.
The crowd of mostly young protesters quickly dispersed.
Police did not say how many people were arrested during the demonstration. ”I heard that there have been some arrests, but I am still trying to find out details,” police representative Tarwireyi Tirivavi said.
NCA representative Douglas Mwonzora said 10 protesters had been arrested in Harare.
Simultaneous protests had been planned for Zimbabwe’s five main cities and towns. The protest in the eastern town of Mutare did not take place, NCA representative Douglas Mwonzora said.
In the second largest city of Bulawayo, Mwonzora said about 300 people staged a protest that was quickly broken up by police who arrested eight people.
In the southern town of Masvingo, Mwonzora said 840 people joined the demonstration, which police broke up, arresting 20 people.
A smaller protest in the central town of Gweru went off without incident, he said.
Police had tried to prevent the nationwide protests getting off the ground at all by arresting three top NCA officials on Monday and sealing of the group’s national headquarters early on Tuesday.
NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku, national coordinator Edna Zinyemba and information officer Maxwell Saungwene were arrested mid-day Monday and were still in police custody more than 24 hours later.
NCA’s lawyers were still trying to find at which police station the three were being held. They had only managed to locate Zinyemba by early Tuesday, Mwonzora said. The demonstrations are part of a series of national protests the NCA has organized in the aftermath of President Robert Mugabe’s controversial re-election last month, which was declared illegitimate by independent Zimbabwean observers and the opposition.
The first protest on April 6 was quickly broken up by police.
The NCA wants to force the government to adopt a more democratic constitution, which the group says would prevent the abuses that aided Mugabe’s re-election in the March 9-11 presidential poll.
The current constitution, negotiated with Britain at independence in 1980, gives Mugabe broad executive powers, which he used to change electoral rules up to a day before voting began.
Meanwhile, a Zimbabwean court denied bailed Tuesday to jailed pro-democracy leader Lovemore Madhuku, who was arrested one day earlier for organising anti-government protests, state television reported.
Five other activists from the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) were granted bail of 8 000 Zimbabwe dollars ($145), but a magistrate’s court denied bail to Madhuku, the report said.
The report did not name the other five activists. All six are due to appear again in court on Wednesday, it said.
The six face charges under Zimbabwe three-month-old Public Order and Security Act, which bans all political demonstrations.
President Robert Mugabe pushed the law through parliament ahead of the March 9-11 presidential elections. Independent observers here said the law was used to break up campaign rallies by the opposition. – AFP
