Mugabe Foes Throng Opening of Parliament
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Thousands of opposition supporters dominated the opening of Zimbabwe’s new parliament Thursday, whistling and chanting as President Robert Mugabe did his best to ignore them.
Mugabe sternly inspected a military honor guard outside the parliament building in Harare, the capital, as the crowd screamed the opposition slogan, Chinja, or “change,†in the local Shona language.
Some in the crowd, which was held back by a security cordon, gave the open-hand salute of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC. Mugabe supporters were far outnumbered in the crowd.
Parliament opened with the largest opposition contingent in the nation’s history. All 57 MDC lawmakers wore black armbands to honor the 31 people who were killed in political violence before the June parliamentary elections.
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