Police, troops seek to halt unrest on third day of food riots

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Police and troops fired tear gas and dragged some protesters from their homes Wednesday, the third day of riots triggered by food price increases.

Police skirmished with protesters in impoverished townships of the capital, Harare, and then moved to flush out the demonstrators, angry over last week's price increases of up to 30 percent for food, bread, sugar and soft drinks.

The Roman Catholic Justice and Peace Commission said soldiers in eastern Harare rounded up suspected demonstrators, dragging some from their homes.

''They are going from house to house, getting hold of young men or women who could be possible demonstrators and either drive them off somewhere or beat them there,'' said Tarcisius Zimbiti, head of the commission.

Witnesses in two western townships said police and army patrols forced their way into homes and beat residents with batons and riot sticks.

Police fired tear gas and stopped vans ferrying commuters from one township into the center of Harare, said Robert Manase, a market vendor.

The price increases came as Zimbabwe was suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, with inflation at a record 70 percent and unemployment above 50 percent.

About a dozen soldiers attacked four journalists in the township of Dzivarasekwa.

The journalists were spread-eagled face down on the street at gunpoint and beaten with whips and riot sticks, said Associated Press Television News cameraman Chris Mazivanhanga, who was treated at a clinic for bruises, welts on his back and shock.

The troops also attacked an Associated Press photographer and two South African Broadcasting Corp. television crew members. The soldiers, who had seen the journalists' film assault victims, confiscated the camera crews' videotapes, Mazivanhanga said.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said he had no information on the alleged incidents involving the journalists.

Harare district police commander Faustino Mazango told state radio that protesters had angered police by re-erecting barricades after streets had been cleared.

''The patience of the police could run out and there could be fatalities if youths go on erecting barricades,'' he said.

State radio said 58 people were arrested Tuesday in disturbances across western and southern Harare, most on suspicion of violence and eight for looting.

The rioting started Monday and spread across the southern and western suburbs Tuesday with protesters stoning cars and trashing shops. Harare's largest bakery said three of its trucks were looted of 5,000 loaves of bread.

The last food riots, triggered in 1997 by a 25 percent increase in the price of corn meal, left five people dead after President Robert Mugabe deployed troops to end civil unrest.