Zimbabwe police block rally
Zimbabwean police called off an opposition rally in their capital yesterday, prompting accusations of political interference on the eve of a regional summit on the southern African nation’s political crisis.Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said leaders of his Movement for Democratic Change had organized the rally in Harare to update members on their position headed into the talks, set to take place in South Africa.
Zimbabwean police called off an opposition rally in their capital yesterday, prompting accusations of political interference on the eve of a regional summit on the southern African nation’s political crisis.
Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said leaders of his Movement for Democratic Change had organized the rally in Harare to update members on their position headed into the talks, set to take place in South Africa.
Regional leaders were expected to press Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai to form a coalition government, as they had agreed to do in September. The MDC refuses to govern with Mugabe until a fair distribution of cabinet and other government posts is worked out and harassment of dissidents ends. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party and leaders of neighboring countries have urged the opposition to form the government first and work out differences later.
In an interview, chief opposition spokesman Tendai Biti said the banning of yesterday’s rally was evidence that ZANU-PF held his party in “total contempt.” Biti, in South Africa for today’s talks, said ZANU-PF’s attitude left little reason to hope the summit would produce a breakthrough.
The Mugabe government’s position was laid out yesterday in an editorial in the state-owned Mail newspaper, which accused the opposition of being “intransigent.”
Human-rights activists said Mugabe’s government had stepped up its crackdown on free speech in recent weeks.
But a police spokesman said the rally had been banned because of the danger of violence among opposition factions. Chamisa, the opposition spokesman, dismissed that as “ridiculous,” and said police had acted on ZANU-PF orders.
Zimbabwe has been virtually without a government since Tsvangirai won the most votes in a presidential election in March. He pulled out of a runoff against Mugabe because of brutal attacks on opposition supporters.
Philly.com
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