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The latest. If it is bad now, wait until after the harvest when the remaining 500 white owned farms are seized. This may be the last harvest of any consequence for a while..

By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer
Tue Mar 6, 3:13 PM ET

HARARE, Zimbabwe - The risk of "sudden major violence" is growing in Zimbabwe as it struggles with food shortages, record inflation of some 1,600 percent, repression and corruption, a respected international research group said Tuesday.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group said unrest could be triggered by rifts in President Robert Mugabe's ruling party over his continued leadership, rising discontent in the armed forces, and "energized" opposition and civil society groups.

"Economic issues, discontent among underpaid police and troops and the increasing willingness of opposition parties and civil society to protest in the streets all increase the risk of sudden major violence," the group said.

Coinciding with the report's release, police officials conceded that protesters had defied a three-month ban on public demonstrations. Thirty emboldened rioters, said to be supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, attacked a squad of 16 police in the southwestern Harare township of Budiriro on Sunday, state radio reported Tuesday.

The outnumbered police unit fired tear gas to repel the assailants, who blocked streets with rocks and set garbage alight, the radio said. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told state radio no arrests were made but warned demonstrators against defying the ban on protests.

"The law will catch up with them," he told the radio.

Last week, at least 50 demonstrators demanding political and constitutional reforms were arrested in illegal protests across the country.

The three-month ban on protests came after opposition supporters fought running battles with Harare police trying to stop a rally Feb. 18 where opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was scheduled to launch his campaign for next year's presidential elections.

The International Crisis Group said growing discontent among senior leaders of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party, police and troops could thwart plans by Mugabe loyalists to move next year's presidential polls to 2010 to give him two more years in power.

The group said powerful critics within the ruling party could block postponement of the elections by forcing Mugabe, 83, to become a non-executive president and appoint a prime minister or by forcing him to retire.

The report added that Mugabe's rivals were increasingly concerned by the crumbling economy and the collapse of their own business operations and favored reopening the country to international aid. Ties with the West were severed in six years of political and economic turmoil after the often-violent seizures of more than 5,000 white-owned commercial farms that began in 2000.

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