Tsvangirai seeks help for Zimbabwe crisis

By Nelson Banya

HARARE (Reuters) - Hundreds of angry Zimbabweans attacked soldiers carrying out a crackdown on illegal foreign currency trading in the capital Harare on Monday in a further sign of the country's collapse.

The crowd hurled stones at the troops and chanted "beat the soldiers," accusing them of hitting and robbing people during the currency operation.

"Someone has to say enough is enough," one youth said.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, witnesses said. There were no reports of injuries.

In other developments, a cholera outbreak spread and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai asked for international help to end a humanitarian crisis.

Zimbabweans have grown increasingly angry at the collapse of the once prosperous country, where a deadlock between veteran President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai over a power-sharing deal has delayed hope of rescuing the ruined state.

Unemployment is over 90 percent, food and fuel are in short supply and inflation is officially over 230 million percent. At least 400 people have died from cholera.

MDC leader Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in the first round of a March presidential poll and then withdrew from the second round in June due to violence against his supporters, painted a picture of a nation on the edge of destruction.

"As I speak our country is consumed by a man-made humanitarian crisis with a recent outbreak of cholera," Tsvangirai said in a statement.

"The food situation in our country is deplorable.. may I use this platform to appeal to the rest of the world to move with speed to assist us address the humanitarian situation in the country as it has reached catastrophic levels."

GOVERNMENT BLAMES WEST

The World Health Organization has put the cholera death toll at around 400, but Zimbabwean rights groups estimate that up to 1,000 people have died from a disease that is preventable and treatable under normal conditions.

The water delivery system has broken down in Harare and other cities, forcing residents to drink from contaminated wells and streams.

The health minister said on Monday cholera now affected nine of Zimbabwe's 10 provinces.

At the Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases clinic in Mbare, a Harare township, the mortuary was crammed with 18 bodies.