HARARE Zimbabwean riot police guarded the country's Parliament for the second consecutive day on Friday after students threatened to launch Indonesian-style protests to force President Robert Mugabe out of power. Some 1,000 college students staged a protest march on Thursday against alleged corruption in Mugabe's government warning him to go gracefully or suffer former Indonesian President Suharto's fate. They demonstrated for hours outside the Ministry of Higher Education and Parliament, where hundreds of heavily-armed police had been deployed over fears the protest might turn violent.

On Friday, about 200 police returned to guard Parliament and Ministry of Education offices after some students promised on Thursday they would be back on Friday to march against Mugabe, who denies their accusations he is running a corrupt administration. Police details were armed with shotguns, rifles, teargas cannisters and shields. Zimbabwe's dominant state media blacked out the Thursday protest. The 74-year-old Mugabe Zimbabwe's leader since the southern African state gained independence from Britain in 1980 has been fighting a wave of violent protests over the last six months, which political analysts see as a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

There have been protests over taxes, food prices, war veteran payouts, corruption and student grants. The worst protests were in January when at least six people were killed during food riots which mugabe only crushed after deploying troops with armoured vehicles. (Reuter)