Tsvangirai justifies Egypt-style uprising for Zimbabwe

Mass uprisings have shaken dictatorships in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt this month. The most recent has been in Egypt, where for the past seven days, tens of thousands of people in various parts of the country have been holding mass demonstrations, calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down.

On Saturday Tsvanigari told Fox News that oppression is resented and people are right to demand their freedom. To me when people take their rights and start demanding more rights, there is nothing wrong with that including in Zimbabwe. That was the whole purpose of our struggle for the last 10 years. he said, adding that: The aspect of incumbents leaving power to their children, dynasties, as we may call it, that is very resented by the people.

Like Robert Mugabe, one of Africas best known autocrats, Mubarak has been in power for 30 years and, under him, Egyptians have had to endure years of corruption and poverty. The Egypt demonstrations were inspired by the Tunisian uprising earlier this month, another example of citizens fed up with years of political and economic grievances.

Since the protests started in Egypt the hospitals have reportedly been treating thousands injured in clashes with security forces. Human Rights Watch says 116 people have died from the violence. Shaken by the protests Mubarak has been forced to reshuffle his cabinet and remove the despised Interior Minister, Habib al-Adly.

The Egyptian governments move to set secutiy forces on the people is a tactic traditionally employed by Mugabe. The ZANU PF leader has used state security agents, soldiers and police to harass, intimidate, beat up, torture and kill opposition activists.

After losing the March 2008 harmonized parliamentary and presidential election, ZANU PF deployed the army in Operation Mavhotera Papi (Where Did You Vote?), killing over 500 people in the process and torturing tens of thousands.