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Zimbabwe Official Defends Crackdown on Protests, Urges Patience with Economy

Peter Clottey

   Zimbabwe's minister of foreign affairs and international trade on
   Monday defended crackdowns on anti-government demonstrations and urged
   patience in turning around the country's foundering economy.

   Though "everybody's got the right to demonstrate," there have "been a
   lot of insinuations and campaigns of violence," Sibusiso B. Moyo told
   VOA in an interview. Citing public safety, he endorsed a Zimbabwe
   court's ruling hours earlier to uphold a police ban on a protest
   organized by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
   alliance.

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