Mugabe Arrests Street Vendors, Destroys Marketplaces

Mugabe's latest tactic: arresting street traders and destroying marketplace stalls, calling these vendors "economic saboteurs." This London Telegraph article provides details.

Hundreds of police armed with batons and tear gas descended on the heaving street markets of the capital, Harare, and second city, Bulawayo. They wrecked stalls, destroyed goods and hauled away the traders.

Many were assaulted and the huge operation, codenamed Restore Order, provoked violent protests in the town of Chitungwiza, 20 miles south of Harare. Youths stoned police, injuring 11, in the most serious outbreak of urban disorder since Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF Party won the widely condemned parliamentary elections in March.

Supt Oliver Mapandika, a police spokesman, said the operation would rid the cities of illegal traders. He blamed them for price rises and shortages of basic essentials and said that 9,725 had been arrested.