Zimbabwe police arrest 67 in capital-city protest

President Robert Mugabe warned against an Arab Spring type of revolution, as Zimbabwe police said they arrested 67 people following a violent protest that rocked the capital, Harare.

“What happened in the Arab world should not be tried here. We don’t want to be provoked. We are a peaceful people,” the state-run Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying on Saturday.

Zimbabwe police used batons, tear gas and water cannons to crush the anti-government protest Friday, despite a court order that the demonstration should be permitted.

At least 50 people were injured by the police, said former vice president Joice Mujuru, now the head of the People First party and a participant in the demonstration.

“The people’s anger is very deep. Zimbabweans are beginning to say enough is enough,” said another opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai at a press conference after the demonstration was dispersed.

Friday’s protest, dubbed the “mega demonstration,” was the first time that Zimbabwe’s fractured opposition joined in a single action to confront Mugabe’s government since 2007.

Usually bustling with hawkers, the capital’s streets Friday were bristling with police wielding batons and tear gas canisters.

Police were at the headquarters of the main opposition MDC-T party. Other police mounted roadblocks on roads leading into the city.

Many Harare shops closed early while others were looted. At the crowded Copacabana market, stalls were burned as protesters clashed with a group that was chanting pro-government slogans.

Tear gas blew into the annual agricultural fair, forcing officials to temporarily close the gates. Some protesters removed the road sign for Robert Mugabe Way and placed it next to a dead puppy.

Others burned tires on the streets and threw stones and rocks at the police.

“That old man should not be allowed to take the country to the grave with him,” shouted one of the protesters in the local Shona language.

Supporters of 92-year-old Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from white minority rule in 1980, say he should rule until he dies.

Frustrations over Zimbabwe’s rapidly deteriorating economy are boiling over in this once prosperous but now economically struggling southern African country.

Another anti-government demonstration will be held Friday, said the coalition of at least 18 opposition parties and civic organizations that organized Friday’s protest.