Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's military has warned it will deal forcefully with any violence linked to next week's planned protest marches against President Robert Mugabe.
Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has called for a week of peaceful protests beginning on Monday and asked Zimbabweans to come out "in their millions" to demand that Mr Mugabe step down.
"Stand up and be counted. Demonstrate your anger," he said. "Be peaceful. Be disciplined. Be vigilant. Be courageous."
The Zimbabwe Defence Forces, incorporating the army, air force and police, issued a warning to potential protesters, telling the official Herald newspaper that prior demonstrations had "turned violent, with both innocent lives of citizens and property being deliberately destroyed".
"In the light of this, the ZDF will not be an idle observer, instead it will bring to bear its full force upon those perpetrators of uncalled for violence," the Herald quoted a ZDF statement as saying.
The statement from the ZDF, which traditionally supports Mr Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and took a strong stance against the opposition during last year's elections, marked the military's first direct warning ahead of next week's protests.
Similar warnings delivered ahead of previous demonstrations have usually been issued by the police.
Mr Mugabe's Home Affairs Minister Mr Kembo Mohadi said earlier this week police would use force against demonstrators if the protests turned violent.
"We are ready to crush any demonstrations which will lead to the destruction of property or is a threat to national security," Mr Mohadi said.
Groups of so-called war veterans, loyal to Mr Mugabe, also warned the opposition last week they would clamp down on the anti-government demonstrations.
Mr Tsvangirai urged protesters to exercise maximum restraint, saying Mr Mugabe's supporters "are actively planning to start violence".
Tough new security legislation which Mr Mugabe signed into law last year outlaws public gatherings without police clearance, and on Wednesday the MDC said riot police arrested three women among a crowd praying in Harare ahead of the planned opposition protests.
Mr Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, hinted last week for the second time in two months that he may be ready to hand over to a successor amid a deepening political and economic crisis many blame him for.
But he vowed the MDC, which he calls a puppet of the West, would only rule "over our dead bodies".
The MDC and labour unions each called strikes earlier this year, which were among the biggest protests against Mr Mugabe since his controversial re-election in March 2002 polls that both the opposition and several Western countries said were rigged. - (Reuters)