January 20, 1998

HARARE, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Harare's low-income suburbs woke up engulfed
in smoke Tuesday with almost all shops looted and burnt by angry mobs in
food riots that began the previous.

The riots over the government's 21 percent hike in the price of
mealie-meal (corn flour) continued into the early hours Tuesday despite
government's reversal of the measure.

Government used air force helicopters Monday to disperse enraged crowds
with tear gas.

While Tuesday began relatively quiet in most suburbs fear still gripped
the capital city, Harare, with commuter omnibuses refusing to take
passengers. The result has been that hundreds of employees are having to
walk to work.

But by mid-morning Tuesday riots started again in some suburbs
particularly Mbare, the poorest and most volatile suburb on the southern
edge of downtown where rioters continued to battle police.

In other neighbourhoods such as Warren Park and the dormitory town of
Chitungwiza battles between police and rioters resumed. In Budiriro
suburb, on the western fringe of the city, a woman reportedly lost her
baby in a stampede while when an air force helicopter fired teargas
canisters.

The woman put her baby down so that she could join in the looting but in
the process a chopper firing teargas arrived and people trampled on the
baby as they tried to flee so she died, one resident told the national
news agency, Ziana.

It said the riots, believed to have been spontaneous, broke out Monday
in low-income suburbs. Later, they spread downtown forcing businesses to
close as early.

The rioters looted shops bare. The extent of the damage is still to be
assessed.

Besides rescinding the price hike of mealie-meal, President Robert
Mugabe's government also said it would review the prices of all
commodities.

Mealie-meal is a staple used to make a stiff porridge locally known as
sadza. It is also commonly eaten in most of Southern Africa.

Prices of other commodities rose an average 20 percent recently due to
the devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar, now exchanging for 17 to one
U.S. dollar.
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