Sekeramayi warns 'unruly elements' in army after Harare looting

Sekeramayi warns 'unruly elements' in army after Harare looting

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Posted to the web: 03/12/2008 09:27:41
ZIMBABWE'S military chiefs are investigating a looting spree carried out by "unruly" soldiers in Harare and culprits will be punished, the defence minister said.

"During the last five days, Harare experienced disturbances by a few unruly elements from the defence forces," Sydney Sekeramayi told a news conference late Tuesday.

"As a result, a number of properties were damaged, innocent people injured, money and property stolen," he added.

"Measures are being taken that this will not happen again. These incidents are being investigated and those culpable would be brought to book," he said.

The soldiers were accused of looting downtown shops in Harare and beating foreign currency dealers, but some residents fear the country has now reached a dangerous turning point in its crisis.

Several shops were looted and witnesses accused soldiers of hauling off goods.

The state-run Herald newspaper and the Star newspaper in Johannesburg Wednesday showed pictures of some uniformed soldiers apparently looting shops and some running away with their loot.

Police were called to break up the riot, which set nerves on edge in a city struggling to survive after water supplies were cut Sunday, in a bid to fight a cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 500 people.

Army spokesman Colonel Simon Tsatsi Tuesday denied sending troops into the streets to attack the foreign currency dealers, who provide an illegal but essential service in a country where local bank notes lose value by the hour.

"Whatever is happening is not the official position of the army," Tsatsi told AFP on Tuesday.

"We don't subscribe to that. It's probably just a few small number of indisciplined soldiers who are doing this."

Zimbabwe's soldiers rarely show open dissent against President Robert Mugabe, the 84-year-old who has governed since independence from Britain in 1980.

While senior army officials are seen as loyal to Mugabe, ordinary soldiers have suffered the same stark deprivations that have cut across Zimbabwean society.

Once one of Africa's most successful nations, the economy has been shrinking for a nearly a decade, pounded by the world's highest inflation, last estimated at 231 million percent in July.

The daily struggle became even more difficult Sunday, when authorities cut water supplies to the capital amid a cholera epidemic that has infected more than 11,000 people and killed nearly 500, according to the World Health Organisation. - AFP

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