Zimbabwe prepares for protests as Parliament opens
Military helicopters hovered over Harare today as Zimbabwean police prepared for protests against President Robert Mugabe ahead of the opening of parliament.
Police blocked roads and warned demonstrators to stay away from the demonstrations, which are timed to coincide with the first parliamentary sitting since Mugabe won a disputed presidential election in March.
Meanwhile, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo dismissed the tightening of EU sanctions on Mugabe’s circle as ‘‘trivial and irrelevant’’.
Today’s planned demonstrations were organised by Lovemore Madhuku, head of the National Constitutional Assembly, and umbrella group of trade unions, churches and human rights activists.
The NCA has demanded sweeping changes to the laws that have kept Mugabe’s increasingly dictatorial regime in power for 22 years.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said it would boycott the traditional ceremony which precedes Mugabe’s policy speech.
The 78-year-old ruler will be driven to parliament in a vintage Rolls Royce, with soldiers on horseback and a fly-past of military jets.
In the last two years, Mugabe’s policies have pushed the country towards famine and economic and political chaos.
His election win was condemned by the EU, the US and other observers as far from free and fair. The MDC leader called it ‘‘daylight robbery’’.
Mugabe has been accused of running a campaign of violence by ruling party militants against political opponents and white farmers.
And in another development today, one of the country’s most distinguished novelists and poets, Chenjerai Hove, has fled to Paris, complaining of harassment by the authorities.
‘‘You live for 24 hours in fear,’’ said the award winning author. ‘‘The threats were becoming unbearable. People were phoning my house saying I would disappear.’’
