Dozens Arrested at Pakistani Protest; Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa Sworn In
HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. It's good to have you with us I'm George Howell.</s>ALLEN: I'm Natalie Allen.</s>HOWELL: All right, we're following some new and important developments out of Pakistan. Police there say 100 people have been arrested. Nearly 100 police and others have been injured at an Islamabad protest. Let's go to live to CNN's Sophia Saifi in the Pakistani capital. Sophia, what more can you tell us about the root of these protests?</s>SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: Well, George, the root has to do with</s>HOWELL: All right, Sophia, and we're looking at images of what's been happening there in Islamabad. What more can you tell us about the fact that the Pakistani --</s>HOWELL: -- TV stations, many of the private stations, have been taken off the air?</s>SAIFI: Yes, this is a development that's only happened about an hour and a half ago. There were a lot of images being broadcast across the country. And the Pakistani electronic media regulatory authority sent out a notice, calling all cable news channels to resist and sensitively report on the matter that's happening between the cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. According to some people in the government that I've spoken to, this has caused more protesters to come out. We're hearing of reports that protesters in Karachi and Lahore and Islamabad, which are the three major cities across the country. But the fact that there's a major media blackout like this is something unusual. It hasn't happened in at least a decade, when former President Musharraf called for a blackout, called for an emergency in the country and there was a summer blackout. So there's a lot of rumors. There's a lot of unease and a lot of unknowingness of what's going to happen in the hours to come.</s>HOWELL: CNN producer, Sophia Saifi, live for us in Islamabad. We'll stay in touch with you as developments continue out of the region. Thank you.</s>ALLEN: In Zimbabwe, people are hoping for big changes from their new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa. He was sworn in Friday following Robert Mugabe's resignation this week.</s>HOWELL: A Catholic priest mediated the talks that led to the transition of power. He spoke exclusively to our David McKenzie about this historic process.</s>DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With each passing day, the calls grew louder, the pressure on Mugabe mounted.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you hear two bulls wanting to fight, you have to know how to tame both.</s>MCKENZIE (voice-over): And this priest persisted.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did I feel the pressure? I'm a tough nut.</s>MCKENZIE (voice-over): As a mediator between Mugabe and he military, it was up to Father Mukonori (ph) to make sure the guns on the streets stayed silent. And the only sounds that the former president heard were the cries of his people and the reasoned voice of a long-time confidant.</s>MCKENZIE: What did those crowds mean to former president Mugabe? What did he say?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He saw that they spoke.</s>MCKENZIE: And he listened to them?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are the results? You see the results. That's a sign that he listened.</s>MCKENZIE: Did it break him?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It moved him. It moved him in this sense that he realized they are speaking to say, this is enough.</s>MCKENZIE (voice-over): The negotiations were long.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes in a day, we'd go to three different places.</s>MCKENZIE (voice-over): But they were always civil.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was not a fight. It was a discussion.</s>MCKENZIE (voice-over): The generals even saluting the man they look to overthrow.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a few weeks from now...</s>MCKENZIE (voice-over): It was during this address that the world thought Mugabe was ready to go. The resignation letter was already drafted. But before sending, Mugabe asked for just a few more weeks.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listening of a 93-year old is not the same as listening of a 25-year old.</s>MCKENZIE (voice-over): Adversity, says the priest, the cries were heard and a new president of Zimbabwe took the stage. Stripped of his office, Mugabe still wishes there was a more systematic transfer of power, says Father Mukonori. He said he is available to Emmerson. He is available. He's at his disposal. He does not vanish from life, he is not dead. But he's vanished from limelight.</s>MCKENZIE (voice-over): A man who ruled with an iron fist, perhaps not willing to completely let go -- David McKenzie, CNN, Harare.</s>ALLEN: We're joined now by "The Washington Times" correspondent Geoff Hill to discuss this historic change in Zimbabwe's leadership. Geoff, thanks for talking with us with. First of all, the euphoria we just saw from those people, such a beautiful thing to see. But now it's up to Mnangagwa to come through for them. Do you think he can and he will?</s>GEOFF HILL, "THE WASHINGTON TIMES": Yes, I do. And perhaps I'm putting naive confidence in Emmerson, who I have met several times and spoken with many times. Emmerson is a pragmatist whereas Mugabe was more of a philosopher, sometimes a very violent and bad philosopher. Emmerson understands what needs to be done to get this country back on track. Words are not going to do it. He will have to show very quickly and very clearly that this is the change before Western countries reengage financially.</s>ALLEN: That's encouraging that you've met him and feel good about his taking over the country. He struck a very inclusive tone --</s>ALLEN: -- in his remarks to the country. What stood out for you?</s>HILL: The fact that he said the past was the past and he didn't want any retribution, that he wanted to go forward inclusively. This was so important, not just in terms of white and black. Remember at the height of Rhodesia in the 1970s, there were only 320,000 whites. There now 12 million black people, 4 million of them living in exile. And Zimbabwe has a number of tribes. The Shona tribe, the Shona's Mnangagwa's own</s>ALLEN: Ninety percent unemployment in Zimbabwe. Is job one the economy? And where does he start?</s>HILL: This is so critical. You've hit it there. Not 90 percent unemployment but Mugabe, a former school teacher, insisted that all schools do algebra and Shakespeare. You have the most literate and well-educated country in Africa. And of course, you can't expect kids who have done their education to go and grow pumpkins. They want real jobs in the city. They're on Twitter, they're on Facebook and they insist on their voice being heard. And the first voice, the loudest voice is, we want jobs.</s>ALLEN: Well, hopefully he can start to create that. He certainly reached out to the world, saying, we're open for business. One journalist we spoke recently with said she was a tad disappointed he didn't account for his role in the past when he spoke, working alongside Mugabe, who put the country in this downward spiral. Should he have addressed that?</s>HILL: Very difficult because, of course, he was involved in the genocide of the 1980s against the Ndebele people in the south of Zimbabwe. This would have him in The Hague, essentially. So he has to be very careful. But you remember that when Gorbachev came to power and he'd been a Soviet strongman, so had Boris Yeltsin, neither of them said sorry for the past. They simply changed the future.</s>ALLEN: Geoff Hill with "The Washington Times," thanks so much for joining us.</s>HOWELL: Still ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States. Consumers fought crowds and long lines to be part of it. And the retailers fought the competition. Stay with us.