Zimbabwe’s opposition on Thursday warned that the last day of its week-long series of protests will be D-Day for the government and called on Zimbabweans to take to the streets despite state repression.
”The is the moment you have been waiting for. Tomorrow, Friday 6th June, 2003 is D-Day,” the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on the penultimate day of a five-day strike and protest movement it has called to try to unseat President Robert Mugabe.
”Rise up in your millions to demonstrate publicly your utmost disapproval of this violent dictatorship,” the MDC said in an full-page advertisement in the press.
It urged Zimbabweans not to be afraid despite hundreds of them having been beaten up, allegedly by security forces and pro-government supporters, and more than 500 others arrested since the start of the mass protests on Monday.
The MDC said that since then, ”the rogue regime has actively robbed you of your democratic and constitutional right to express yourselves peacefully against murder, rape, starvation, disease, violence and general misrule.
”Don’t be afraid. No force is stronger than you. Victory is in sight,” it urged.
An MDC official said on Thursday afternoon that more than 50 of its members and suspected sympathisers have been beaten by ruling party members in the Harare
township of Highfield.
Police have not confirmed the charge, but Pearson Mungofa, the MDC lawmaker for the suburb, said supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) wearing army uniforms carried out the assaults on Wednesday night.
Those assaulted included opposition party activists and ”those who they think sympathise with the MDC,” Mungofa said.
Highfield was a flashpoint in the first days of a mass protest action called by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. On Monday at least one resident was shot in the leg by police trying to quell an anti-government march.
Two weeks ago Tsvangirai addressed a rally in Highfield and announced his party’s plans for a ”final push” against President Robert Mugabe’s government.
A job stayaway this week shut down shops and businesses in major cities including Harare and the second city of Bulawayo. However, a show of force by security agents has deterred any marches from gaining momentum.
At least two people have been killed during the mass action, according to reports from both the police and the opposition.
Mugabe defended the use of force by his security forces, saying they had acted in the interest of peace and stability.
”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,” Mugabe told South Africa’s SABC television news.
”We don’t want to make our people suffer. We want our people to be free to express their free views,” he said.
The High Court last weekend declared the MDC mass action against Mugabe’s government illegal and warned that demonstrators would face the full wrath of the law if they defied the ban on the protests.
Friday marks the 59th anniversary of the allied invasion of the beaches of Normandy in northern France, or D-Day, which marked the start of the campaign to liberate France and end World War II. – Sapa-AFP