Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) Calls for anti-govt protests in Harare go unheeded

Calls for anti-govt protests in Harare go unheeded
By: Floyd Nkomo
Posted: Tuesday, March 1, 2011 12:13 pm

PROTESTS organised against President Mugabe and Zanu-PF in Harare appear to have gone unheeded as the capital has remained calm and business as usual. Armored cars, trucks of riot police and Israeli-built water cannon vehicles swept through Harare since Saturday, fanning out into townships around the city.

Authorities had indicated that they were reading for an criminal activity that would ensue and any demonstrations that were not authorised by government.

Messages, many of them anonymous, posted on Zimbabwean websites and on Facebook called for protests Tuesday but there has been no open campaigning for demonstrators to turn out on the streets.

Some 15 percent of Zimbabweans have access to the Internet and social networking sites.

Many of them are largely based in the diaspora.

According to SW Radio, an anti-government and anti Zanu-PF website, "The protests were set to start at the Harare gardens and the public were being encouraged to keep up the action, spreading the protest countrywide, until 'President' Robert Mugabe resigns."

There was no show of demonstrators at Harare Gardens and no sign in the capital that people would heed the call.

Journalist Angus Shaw had told SW Radio Africa on Monday that "tensions are high ahead of the planned protest".

President Robert Mugabe is scheduled to address a mass rally in central Harare on Wednesday calling for an end to illegal western sanctions imposed on the country.

He will lead the signing of an anti-sanctions petition in Zimbabwe.

The petition is dubbed the National Anti-Sanctions Petition Campaign.

Britain and the US and their allies have imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe.

President Mugabe said Britain internationalised a bilateral conflict with Zimbabwe and mobilised western nations to impose the embargo.

Labels: EGYPT, SANCTIONS, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 3:59 PM