Harare Police used tear gas and batons to prevent any protests when the government extended its eviction and demolition campaign overnight to the country's oldest black urban township, the main opposition party said on Wednesday. Paul Temba-Nyathi, the spokesperson for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the party was still trying to find out how many people were arrested when police moved into the Makokoba township, an opposition stronghold outside the second city of Bulawayo. "The people did not fight back but police assaulted people in Makokoba and dispersed groups where they were congregating," he said. "It is absolutely shocking. These were not shanties," said David Coltart, a human rights lawyer and MDC official. He said the buildings were small four-room houses built with government approval, in some cases as long as 70 or 80 years ago. Police began burning and demolishing the homes of urban poor and the kiosks of street vendors on May 19 in what the government calls a cleanup campaign in the cities. Police also have arrested more than 30 000 vendors, accusing them of dealing in black market goods and attempting to sabotage Zimbabwe's failing economy. The United Nations (UN) has said at least 200 000 people have been left homeless by the campaign it has called an abuse of human rights. The evictions and demolitions also have been condemned by Western governments, civic society groups, churches and human rights groups.

Trudy Stevenson, an opposition lawmaker for northern Harare, said members of a small Muslim community in a Harare township were forced at gunpoint to demolish their mosque. She said it was a substantial modern building surrounded by a prefabricated wall and razor wire. The residents were told to flatten the building themselves or have it bulldozed, she said. The mosque is the only religious building so far known to have been targeted during the destruction of over 21 000 buildings. Critics of the eviction have charged it is an attempt to punish the urban poor for their support of the political opposition and to force them back to rural areas dominated by the ruling party so that they can be more easily controlled. With Zimbabwe's economy on the brink of collapse, the urban centres have become strongholds for the opposition. Unemployment stands at nearly 80%, there are severe shortages of food, fuel and other basic commodities. The government statistical office announced on Wednesday inflation had surged to 144.4% in May. It had reached 622% last year, but the government released disputed figures at the beginning of the year to say it had fallen to 120%. The price of bread rose 29% in May alone and the price of corn meal, a staple food for poor Zimbabweans, rose 51%. The government blamed the increases on speculation by black market traders.