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| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Friday is D-Day, warns MDC |
| 2003-06-05 |
| Zim-Bob-We's opposition on Thursday warned that the last day of its week-long series of protests will be D-Day for the government and called on Zimbabweans to take to the streets despite state repression. "The is the moment you have been waiting for. Tomorrow Friday 6th June, 2003 is D-Day," the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on the penultimate day of a five-day strike and protest movement it has called to try to unseat President Robert Mugabe. "Rise up in your millions to demonstrate publicly your utmost disapproval of this violent dictatorship," the MDC said in an full-page advertisement in the press. It urged Zimbabweans not to be afraid despite hundreds of them having been beaten up, allegedly by security forces and pro-government supporters, and more than 500 others arrested since the start of the mass protests on Monday. The MDC said that since then, "the rogue regime has actively robbed you of your democratic and constitutional right to express yourselves peacefully against murder, rape, starvation, disease, violence and general misrule. Don't be afraid. No force is stronger than you. Victory is in sight." It's going to be a bloody day in Zim-Bob-Way. At least two people have been killed during the mass action, according to reports from both the police and the opposition. Mugabe defended the use of force by his security forces, saying they had acted in the interest of peace and stability. "It is sad when we are forced as a government to use teargas against our own youth who are being misled, but we have to do it in the interests of peace and security," Mugabe told South Africa's SABC television news. "We don't want to make our people suffer. We want our people to be free to express their free views." "As long as they support me." The High Court last weekend declared the MDC mass action against Mugabe's government illegal and warned that demonstrators would face the full wrath of the law if they defied the ban on the protests. Friday marks the 59th anniversary of the allied invasion of the beaches of Normandy in northern France, or D-Day, which marked the start of the campaign to liberate France and end World War II. Somebody in the MDC has read their history books. Good luck, you'll need it. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 People of Zim are quickly getting to the point that they have nothing to lose. Leave Bob in power and you stand a good chance of starving to death. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-06-05 14:20:57 |
| #2 A more likely bet is that this is like Kronstadt 1921 and we know how the rebels faired in that one. |
| Posted by: Hiryu 2003-06-05 12:27:03 |
| #1 Hope Mugabe ends up like Mussolini. And be sure to publish all the buddy-buddy photos of him next to the French. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2003-06-05 09:44:53 |