Protesters gathered in Bradford today to condemn Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe and planned deportations of Zimbabwean asylum seekers from the UK.

The rally in Centenary Square was supported by the West Yorkshire branch of the Movement for Democratic Change and members of Bradford Council.

Recent news headlines about alleged atrocities in Zimbabwe are only the tip of the iceberg, and footage beamed round the world of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangerai with a fractured skull after being beaten by police was just one incident among many, it was claimed.

Priscilla Shiri, 42, left Zimbabwe in 2001 and has lived in Bradford since then. She, her husband and small daughter share a cramped flat in the Green Lane area.

She said that Zimbabweans were being dehumanised here, just as surely as in their homeland under the Mugabe regime.

"I phone home to Zimbabwe to try and find out what is happening," she said. "Prices are doubling every day and wages are decreasing, people there are destitute, homeless, but the Government doesn't care. Those who support Zanu-PF (Mugabe's ruling party) receive food rations, but they still get very little, the rest get nothing.

"Things are getting worse and worse, what you see on your TV screens is nothing compared to what is happening every day. Tsvangerai being beaten was shown because he is an important man, but people are beaten and killed there every day.

"When I phone home people are too scared to talk because the phones seem to be tapped. There is so much suffering there."

The British Government has called for renewed sanctions against Zimbabwe but this is a double-edged sword, said Mrs Shiri.

"Britain is pressing for more sanctions, and they are right to want to get rid of Mugabe, but who suffers? Not him and his Government, it is the ordinary people who suffer."

And the situation for Zimbabwean immigrants to Britain was just as uncertain.

"The Home Office is deporting people saying Zimbabwe is safe," said Mrs Shiri, an information and publicity officer for Cadafretz, the campaign for the defence of Africans returned to Zimbabwe.

"The judges tell them it isn't safe but John Reid ignores them, there are many of us here facing deportation.

"We have no security here, we are made to live in poverty. We can't get proper jobs and many people who have escaped Zimbabwe are very sick, many have mental illness which is made worse with the way they have to live here, never knowing if they will be sent back again.

"The Government must help those who are here as it is they who send money back to help their families in Zimbabwe, it is they who fund the MDC, they who give the money and support that will get rid of Mugabe. But the British Government treats us like this."

e-mail: paddy.mcguffin@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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