Zimbabwe’s main opposition vowed on Monday to organise more rallies against President Robert Mugabe’s rule despite a brutal police crackdown on the weekend.
Scores were hurt and about 130 arrested on Sunday as riot police used tear gas and water cannons to break up a planned rally in Harare by chief opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The event had been approved by the high court.
Despite the violence, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the opposition would not be cowed.
“Our language has become popular expression and we will be at the forefront in confronting the Mugabe regime,” Chamisa told AFP.
“It’s now useless to follow the legal route when you follow the law and court orders are defied.”
Among those arrested at the rally were a number of senior MDC officials, including legislator Paul Madzore.
Tsvangirai left the rally in the densely populated Highfield township without addressing supporters after security forces began their crackdown.
He had planned to use the rally to launch his latest campaign for the presidency of the troubled Southern African nation, resisting plans by Mugabe’s party to extend his rule by another two years next year.
The next presidential elections are due to take place in 2008 but Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980, is trying to delay them to 2010 in order to coincide with parliamentary polls.
The MDC has vowed to resist the proposed poll delay saying the country could not afford another two years with Mugabe at the helm with inflation at nearly 1 600% and food shortages increasingly widespread.
Once a formidable force posing the most serious threat to Mugabe’s 27-year rule, the MDC has been hamstrung by infighting.
Nearly half its MPs joined a splinter group in late 2005 because of a row over whether to contest senate elections. — AFP