Nine people were seriously injured in Zimbabwe’s second largest city over the weekend after police opened fire to disperse rowdy fans after a soccer match.
The crowd became unruly after players from the losing local side, the Highlanders, surrounded the match referee and accused him of not allowing enough injury time in the match, which they lost 2-1 to the Dynamos team from Harare.
Witnesses said police opened fire with live ammunition and tear gas.
One fan was shot in the head and another hit in the groin during the unrest at Bulawayo’s 40 000 seat Barbourfields Stadium, police representative Smile Dube told state radio.
A police post at Barbourfields was attacked, five vehicles were extensively damaged and seven policemen injured in clashes that lasted several hours, he said.
Bulawayo was calm on Monday, but a civil rights group accused the police of being heavyhanded.
Zimbabwe has been gripped by two years of political and economic turmoil. The increasingly unpopular government has cracked down on the opposition, the independent media and the judiciary, and police have done little to enforce the rule of law.
”(The riot) was a reflection of the situation we are in,” said Professor Lovemore Madhuku, who heads a coalition of churches, trades unions and human rights groups that is demanding sweeping
constitutional reforms. ”It is a manifestation of the political tension – the police just chase ordinary people without any fear.”
Meanwhile dissent over Zimbabwe’s declining economy spread to the nation’s hospitals as doctors went on strike, demanding pay raises to offset 124% inflation.
Only senior doctors were at work at Harare’s major government hospitals on Monday. A health department representative said the situation was under control because most patients were aware of the strike and stayed home.
”Of course there are bound to be losses of life and more suffering on the part of patients but we need to look at where we are coming from and where we are going to survive,” Howard Mutsango, president of the Hospital Doctors’ Association, told the state-owned Herald newspaper.
Deputy Health minister David Parirenyatwa appealed for doctors to immediately return to work.
Over the weekend, President Robert Mugabe accused Zimbabwe’s former colonial power Britain of sabotaging the country’s medical system by recruiting its doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
”Britain is coming at dead of night to steal,” he told a conference of nurses. – Sapa-AP