Mugabe: Union men deserve a beating

Zimbabwean union leaders who claim they were assaulted and tortured by police deserved their treatment, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has said....

Lawyers claim that police assaulted at least a dozen union members before a planned protest on 13 September.....

Lawyers for the arrested union leaders say that at least 12 of them were left needing hospital treatment by police, with Zimbabwe Council of Trade Unions Secretary General Wellington Chibebe suffering a broken arm while in custody.

Mr Mugabe said the demonstration had been intended to bring about "regime change" through attracting the support of non-governmental organisations, "stupid" journalists, and the US and British governments.

Zimbabwe's inflation is the highest in the world at more than 1,200%

"We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed and when the police remove them, they say no. We can't have that, that is a revolt to the system," the Herald quoted him as saying.

He said that police had been right in dealing sternly with the protestors: "Some people are now crying foul that they were assaulted, yes, you get a beating."