ZIMBABWE: Conjuring up a state of emergency

HARARE Tuesday, December 02, 2008 (IRIN) - There are growing suspicions that the looting by soldiers in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, may be an elaborate ruse to allow President Robert Mugabe to declare a state of emergency, suspending the constitution and, with it, all civil liberties. In the past few days soldiers - including members of the Presidential Guard - have looted shops and robbed informal foreign currency dealers after they were unable to withdraw their wages from banks because...