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HARARE - Zimbabwe riot police wielding batons broke up protests by union members, doctors and nurses yesterday and the death toll from a cholera epidemic rose to 565 in the spiralling crisis.
Trade unions have called protests over a shortage of increasingly worthless cash while at least 100 health workers protested to demand better pay and conditions at a time they are fighting Zimbabwe's worst cholera outbreak on record.
Zimbabwe's once relatively prosperous economy has collapsed and any hope of rescue is on hold while veteran President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai are deadlocked over implementing a power-sharing arrangement.
Riot police with shields and batons broke up a group of about 20 demonstrators marching towards the central bank.
Across town, police dispersed about 100 health workers who had converged outside the health ministry.
Public hospitals have largely shut down due to drug and equipment shortages, as well as frequent strikes by doctors and nurses pressing for better pay. They have been ill-equipped to cope with the cholera outbreak.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Zimbabwe said cholera had killed 565 people and infected over 12,500 Zimbabweans. Hundreds of Zimbabweans have fled to South Africa for treatment, adding to pressure for greater regional involvement to pull Zimbabwe back from total meltdown.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions said it would press ahead with protests despite the heavy police presence. It said almost 50 union members - including ZCTU General Secretary Wellington Chibebe - had been arrested by police.
"Another 10 in Harare were heavily assaulted by the police," the ZCTU said in a statement.
Police were not immediately available for comment.
There was no sign of any immediate impact of new measures announced by the bank to increase cash withdrawal limits and introduce higher value notes. There were still long lines outside banks as shoppers jostled to get cash.
MILITARY WORRIES
The protests follow unprecedented clashes between soldiers and Zimbabweans on Monday as dozens of unarmed soldiers were involved in running battles with mobs and riot police after seizing cash from vendors and illegal foreign currency traders.
Zimbabwe's Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi said measures has been put in place to prevent acts of violence by what state media called "rogue soldiers".
"Let me also emphasise that those who may try to incite some members of the uniformed forces to indulge in illegal activities will be found equally culpable," Sekeramayi was quoted as saying by the state-owned Herald newspaper.
Analysts said the emergence of dissent in Mugabe's security establishment showed the impact of increased economic instability and may compound the myriad problems already faced by Mugabe's government.
"I think they've got every cause to be worried completely ... if they can't take the troops with them, they are really in trouble. And if this is a start of some kind of a rebellion by the troops then we could see change in Zimbabwe a lot quicker than it seemed likely a while ago," said Steven Friedman, political analyst at the University of Johannesburg.
The spread of cholera over Zimbabwe's borders may also force neighbouring countries to take action.
The normally preventable and treatable disease has spread into neighbouring South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana, according to the World Health Organisation.
Health officials said cholera has been detected in the Limpopo River on the border with Zimbabwe and the International Federation of Red Cross said on Wednesday that six people had died of the disease in South Africa with 400 cases reported.
Malawian Health Minister Khumbo Kachali told Reuters that health services had been put on high alert after a Zimbabwean truck driver was admitted to a hospital in the country's second biggest city Blantyre with the disease.
Zimbabwe's meltdown in figures
INFLATION
Inflation reached 231 million per cent a year in July, the latest month for which a figure has been announced. Economists think it is now much higher and say prices are doubling daily.
GDP
Gross domestic product has fallen every year since 2000, down 10.4 per cent in 2003 alone. The IMF estimated that the economy shrank 6.1 per cent in 2007.
Per capita GDP was estimated at $200 in 2007, from nearer $900 in 1990. Zimbabwe has the world's fastest shrinking economy for a country not at war, according to the World Bank.
INCOME
An estimated 83 per cent of the population was living on below $2 a day by 2005. Since then, the situation has only worsened.
EXPORTS
Exports averaged 33.5 per cent of GDP between 1997 and 2001. UBS forecast this would decline to 9.9 per cent in 2007.
AGRICULTURE
Once the breadbasket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe now needs to import maize. The UN agricultural production index for Zimbabwe fell from nearly 107 in 2000 to just over 74 in 2005.
Official figures show maize production at 800,000 tonnes last season against national demand of 2 million tonnes.
GOLD
Gold output, which accounts for a third of export earnings, hit a low of 125 kg in October, from a peak of 2,400 kg, as the economic crisis forced mines to close.
UNEMPLOYMENT
Unemployment is estimated at over 90 per cent. Well over 3 million Zimbabweans are thought to have fled, mostly to South Africa, in search of work and food.
AID
Aid agencies say 5 million people - almost half the population - might need food aid by early 2009.
IMF ARREARS
Zimbabwe fell into arrears with the International Monetary Fund in 2001. In February 2008, it owed $88 million, of which nearly $80 million has been in arrears for three years or more. While Zimbabwe has averted expulsion, the IMF has suspended financial and technical assistance.
LIFE EXPECTANCY
Average life expectancy fell from 63 years in 1990 to 40.9 years in 2005, according to UN figures.
The mortality rate for children under five rose to 132 deaths per 1,000 in 2005 from 76 deaths in 1990.
CHOLERA
The official death toll from a cholera epidemic since August is at least 565 with over 12,500 infected, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Zimbabwe.
HIV/AIDS
In 2007, HIV prevalence was 15.6 per cent among adults aged 15 to 49 - the fourth highest in the world. It causes the death of about 3,200 people per week in the country of 13.3 million.
HIV prevalence among pregnant women at clinics actually fell from 26 per cent in 2002 to 18 in 2006, but some put that down to high mortality and emigration rather than prevention measures.
ANTHRAX
Save the Children said an anthrax outbreak in the south west has killed three people and could wipe out at least 60,000 livestock.
Sources: UBS, Reuters, WFP, World Bank, Unicef, UNDP, IMF, CIA World Factbook
- REUTERS
