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Tear gas fired at Harare marchers
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Tear gas and live bullets were fired at demonstrators taking part in the first of a series of week-long planned protests and strikes in Zimbabwe. Three opposition politicians from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were receiving treatment after being shot in the legs, local journalist Brain Latham told CNN. Earlier Monday Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC, was arrested at his home and taken to Harare Central police station. He was charged with contempt of court for planning an illegal demonstration. He later appeared in Zimbabwe's High Court for a hearing in his on-going treason trial. Street marches are set for the week in a so-called "final push" by opposition figures seeking to oust President Robert Mugabe. But security forces were in strong evidence in MDC strongholds in an attempt to quell any marches. In the capital Harare, riot police fired tear gas at a crowd of University of Zimbabwe students attempting to march in the city center, driving them back onto the campus. Reuters put the numbers at 6,000 while The Associated Press said the figure was in the hundreds. In Highfield, a township on the capital's outskirts, police fired warning shots and tear gas at a crowd of about 500, while in the country's second city of Bulawayo police sealed off the main city square to prevent opposition supporters from marching. In the Harare township of Mabvuka army trucks patrolled overnight, while tear gas was also fired at another township, Budiriro. Earlier they had dropped leaflets on central Harare urging Zimbabweans to ignore the strike call. One of the leaflets read: "No to mass action, no to violence, no to British puppets, no Rhodesian sell-outs, no to the MDC, enough is enough." They also put out messages over state television warning against strike action. Some of that advice seemed to have been ignored though with industrial areas shut and many shops and businesses closed early Monday. The government has called the action an illegal attempt to spur a coup d'etat and went to the High Court during the weekend to get it banned. The MDC plans to lodge an appeal against the ruling at the Supreme Court on Monday. (Full story) A string of arrests of opposition figures have taken place during the past couple of days. In Bulawayo, two lawmakers were arrested, accused of planning an illegal demonstration, opposition officials said.
Journalist Brian Latham told CNN it seemed the Zimbabwean authorities were making "a concerted effort" to round up people ahead of the protests. "They tried to arrest another two in Bulawayo overnight, but they were not at home," he said. Military police sealed off roads passing Mugabe's official state residence in Harare on Monday, while riot police in armored cars patrolled townships on the city outskirts. State television reported on Sunday that about a dozen MDC activists had been arrested in the Midlands town of Gweru and a Harare township for attacking supporters of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF. The MDC demands Mugabe resign, accusing him of mismanaging an economy now in crisis, with record inflation and unemployment, and shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency. Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, blames the crisis on opponents of his seizures of land from the tiny white minority for redistribution among landless blacks.
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