Police fire teargas at protesters

Rights groups in Zimbabwe on Monday pledged further protests against the country's new constitution even though riot police at the weekend fired teargas to disperse a crowd of almost 300 in the capital, Harare. Bidi Munyaradze, director of Zimrights, told IRIN that the weekend marches in major towns across the country were the first of a planned series of protests against the constitution planned by the National Constitutional Commission (NCA), a coalition of civic groups, rights activists, trade unions, churches and lawyers. The NCA has maintained that after six months of speaking to people throughout the country, a government appointed commission had rejected the wishes of many Zimbabweans to have a ceremonial president, and instead presented a document slanted in favour of the ruling ZANU-PF party. In Harare on Saturday, Munyaradzi said police had ignored a court order allowing the march in Harare to go ahead and fired dozens of rounds of tear gas to disperse the protestors. "We are expecting further marches and assemblies in coming weeks because people have to be made aware of the situation ahead of the constitutional referendum which we hear is now scheduled early in the New Year," he said. "We want people refuse a constitution which does not reflect their wishes."