Mugabe defends use of force

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe has backed Zimbabwean police for using brute force to pre-empt an anti-government protest by the country’s largest trade union, a state-run daily reported yesterday.

“Police were right in dealing sternly with Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leaders during their demonstration… because the trade unionists want to become a law unto themselves,” the Herald quoted Mugabe as saying.The 82-year-old leader said the protest organisers got the treatment they deserved for breaking the public order act which bars unauthorised protests and is roundly condemned as a piece of draconian legislation by critics.”We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed and when the police remove them, they say no,” Mugabe was quoted as saying.”We can’t have that, that is a revolt to the system.When the police say move, move.If you don’t move, you invite the police to use force,” Mugabe said.The ZCTU was forced on September 13 to abandon plans for a series of anti-government protests after the organisers were beaten up and arrested while gathering for the march in central Harare.ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe and 29 labour leaders were assaulted in police custody, leading to Chibebe’s arm being broken, according to his lawyer.The southern African country has been beset by unemployment running at 80 per cent and the annual inflation rate hit a world record levels of more than 1 200 per cent last month.There are serious shortages of food and fuel.Mugabe said the unionists were trying to effect a regime change like in the former Yugoslavia where ex-president Slobodan Milosevic was toppled.It would not work because “Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe, it has a revolutionary struggle,” Mugabe said, repeating accusations that the protesters were trying to get his arch-critics, US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene in Zimbabwe.Nampa-AFPbecause the trade unionists want to become a law unto themselves,” the Herald quoted Mugabe as saying.The 82-year-old leader said the protest organisers got the treatment they deserved for breaking the public order act which bars unauthorised protests and is roundly condemned as a piece of draconian legislation by critics.”We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed and when the police remove them, they say no,” Mugabe was quoted as saying.”We can’t have that, that is a revolt to the system.When the police say move, move.If you don’t move, you invite the police to use force,” Mugabe said.The ZCTU was forced on September 13 to abandon plans for a series of anti-government protests after the organisers were beaten up and arrested while gathering for the march in central Harare.ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe and 29 labour leaders were assaulted in police custody, leading to Chibebe’s arm being broken, according to his lawyer.The southern African country has been beset by unemployment running at 80 per cent and the annual inflation rate hit a world record levels of more than 1 200 per cent last month.There are serious shortages of food and fuel.Mugabe said the unionists were trying to effect a regime change like in the former Yugoslavia where ex-president Slobodan Milosevic was toppled.It would not work because “Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe, it has a revolutionary struggle,” Mugabe said, repeating accusations that the protesters were trying to get his arch-critics, US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene in Zimbabwe.Nampa-AFP