Could it happen here?

[annarborgator]

With the Army's 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team being assigned to domestic duty, I wonder if anything along these lines is in our future. Note the reference to soldiers deeper in the article:

Zimbabwe Police Crush Healthworkers' March

Zimbabwe riot police on Wednesday broke up a peaceful march by health workers protesting against the collapse of the health infrastructure amid mounting signs that the situation is slipping out of the government’s control.

In a related incident, police arrested senior trade unionists after they had handed over a petition to the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe calling for immediate reforms to tackle the cash crisis and rapidly spreading dollarisation of the economy.

The police action followed the first official admission of unrest in the armed forces when Sydney Sekeramayi, defence minister and close confidant of President Robert Mugabe, said “unruly elements of the defence forces” were responsible for sporadic rioting in the capital over the past week.

“As a result, a number of properties were damaged, innocent people injured, and money and property stolen. These acts are unacceptable, reprehensible and criminal,” he said, adding ominously that the incidents “coincided” with a call for a national strike and demonstrations by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

His comments have given rise to speculation among western diplomats in Harare that the Mugabe government may be moving towards a declaration of a state of emergency justified by the cholera crisis and western economic sanctions.

A well-placed government source said 148 soldiers had been arrested, the most senior of them being a colonel. He said the unrest was not confined to Harare but had spread to a number of rural areas where soldiers were raiding villages and farms, terrorising local people and demanding food and money.

The march by about 100 health professionals, crushed by police wielding batons, to the health ministry came as the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Zimbabwe raised its estimate of cholera cases and deaths. It said 12,500 cases had been reported (up from 11,000 reported on Monday) with 565 deaths. Hundreds of Zimbabweans had fled to South Africa for treatment, it said.

The ZCTU said in a statement that Wellington Chibebe, its secretary-general, had been arrested after handing in the petition to the central bank because he had tried to address a group of workers. It said 10 union officials were “heavily assaulted” by police while another 15 were arrested subsequently along with 25 in the midlands city of Gweru and six in the mining town of Zvishavane

In a separate development, the central bank announced the issue of new bank notes with values of Z$10m (US$5, €3.95, £3.40), Z$50m and Z$100m. The previous largest denomination note was Z$1m, or 50 US cents at the parallel market exchange rate. A banker said he hoped the combination of the new notes and the increase in the amount depositors could withdraw from their banks to Z$20m a day would ease the crisis, but warned that, if experience was anything to go by, the supply of notes would be inadequate to meet public demand.

[radbag]

MARTIAL LAW!!!1


btw AA - are you a "24" fan? i'm watching season 5 right now and it's all about gov't conspiracies...you'd love it.