Posted on 02/18/2002 1:03:00 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Thousands of ruling party militants marched through Zimbabwe's capital and hurled stones at the opposition headquarters on Monday as the European Union voted to impose sanctions on the violence-wracked African nation.
An opposition-aligned group accused police of beating several of its members in a separate incident ahead of presidential elections next month.
The 10,000 protesters marched Monday to the offices of Britain's diplomatic mission and accused the former colonial power of supporting the opposition to give control of Zimbabwe back to "white oppressors."
Militants then stoned the building housing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, smashing the building's glass doors and the windows of adjacent shops. No injuries were reported.
The vote will mark the strongest challenge yet to President Robert Mugabe's 22-year rule. Humanitarian workers say the violence is part of a coordinated campaign to ensure victory for the increasingly unpopular ruler.
The Zimbabwean government on Monday banned a host of foreign journalists from covering the election despite earlier promises to admit them.
On Saturday, it expelled European election observer Pierre Schori, prompting the European Union to cut off $110 million in development aid over five years and impose an EU travel ban on Mugabe and 20 of his Cabinet ministers.
"The EU remains seriously concerned at political violence, serious violations of human rights and restrictions on the media ... which call into question the prospects for a free and fair election," a statement issued by the EU foreign ministers said.
Church officials in Zimbabwe's second-largest city, Bulawayo, said Monday that four clerics and seven of their followers were arrested Saturday by police who claimed their prayer vigil for peace violated Zimbabwe's new security laws.
Several were arrested as they knelt and prayed outside a police station where the group's leader, the Rev. Noel Scott, an Anglican pastor, had been taken. Among those arrested was Father Kevin O'Doherty, a Roman Catholic missionary from Detroit who is based in Bulawayo.
All 11 were released on bail by a Bulawayo court Monday after spending two nights in custody.
The interdenominational group of churches said in a statement that police had banned a prayer procession Saturday to several local churches, saying they could not guarantee walkers' safety.
The group decided to travel between services in cars, but "a police presence was observed" at each service, the churches said. Scott was approached while giving a sermon and arrested when he stepped outside the church.
A 1,000-person march for constitutional reform was broken up by police on Friday after it was banned on the grounds it risked triggering public violence.
The march Monday by 10,000 ruling party supporters, however, was legal, police said.
Police stopped the crowd's attack on the opposition party building and herded at least 50 party militants into police vans. Police refused to say whether any had been charged.
"The police are blatantly the instruments" of the ruling party, said Lovemore Madhuku, head of the opposition-backed National Constitutional Assembly, which organized Friday's march. "If you are against the government you don't have any rights."
On Sunday, the government told Swedish reporters that they would not be allowed to cover the election - an announcement that came one day after Schori, a Swede, was expelled. Some journalists from other European countries and South Africa were also rejected.
A few U.S. media organizations, including The Associated Press, were told Monday they had been denied permission to bring in foreign reporters. A few other U.S. organizations were granted accreditation, which will costs $300.
... "The EU remains seriously concerned at political violence, serious violations of human rights and restrictions on the media ... which call into question the prospects for a free and fair election," a statement issued by the EU foreign ministers said ...Like the screaming of peacocks or the chirping of cicadas. And every bit as meaningful.
Why do they even bother? At this point it would be laughable if it wasn't so desperate.
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