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Mugabe declares war
Rowan Philp and Brendan Boyle, The Sunday Times (SA)
June 15, 2008

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=785112

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has vowed to "go to war" to prevent the Movement for Democratic Change taking power - as the race for the presidency enters its final phase. With only 13 days to go to the runoff poll , Mugabe yesterday insisted he would not countenance defeat. "We are prepared to fight for our country and to go to war for it," he told a rally of cheering supporters. The belligerent 84-year-old dictator's comments cap a week in which: The winner of the March 29 poll, Movement for Democratic leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and his second-in-command, Tendai Biti, were arrested - in Tsvangirai's case, repeatedly - on spurious charges; Policemen, soldiers and their wives were forced to vote in the presence of their commanders; The government ordered Zimbabweans to pull down satellite dishes so they could not watch foreign television stations in an effort to prevent them seeing MDC election ads expected to be flighted in South Africa; and reports of violence, intimidation and harassment continued to stream in. Mugabe and his henchmen promised civil war if the MDC won. The escalation of violence in Zimbabwe reached such alarming proportions that a group of 40 African leaders - including 14 former African presidents, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and Archbishop Desmond Tutu - published an open letter on Friday calling for an end to violence and intimidation ahead of the runoff. "We are deeply troubled by the current reports of intimidation, harassment and violence," the leaders said. Botswana on Friday lodged a formal protest about the arrest of Tsvangirai and Biti. "These repeated arrests do not augur well for a free, fair and democratic election," Foreign Minister Phandu Sekeleman told the BBC.

Meanwhile, the blueprint of Mugabe's bloody crackdown was exposed in an explosive set of top-secret documents apparently drawn up by Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). The smuggled documents cannot be independently verified, but the MDC confirmed it considered them genuine and was acting on their contents. It said it was warning MDC members whose names appeared in the documents. An MDC spokesman said: "This is clearly the brutal plan Mugabe has followed in the past two months." The file of more than a dozen documents - each addressed to CIO senior officials, and headed with detailed codes and message numbers - include a recommendation for "massive rigging, by any means possible - i.e. the manipulation of postal votes in Zanu PF's favour, and reduction of polling stations in MDC strongholds if possible". This week, police and Zimbabwean defence industry sources confirmed reports that police, soldiers and their wives had been forced to fill in their postal ballots for the run- off in the presence of senior commanders.

The documents also advocate: "Harassing MDC activists"; That Zanu PF militias dress in MDC T-shirts and harass Mugabe supporters , thus forcing them to "vote to defend their land" by tricking them into believing the MDC was threatening them; A "thorough vetting" of the directors of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission; and Ensuring "war veteran leaders ... should take a leading role in Zanu campaigns". The documents include an April 9 "master plan" for Mugabe, titled "Suggestions to enhance Zanu PF's chances in a rerun", which contains recommendations that "His Excellency (Mugabe) should minimise hate messages in his speeches" and focus on "strategies to revive the country's economy" rather than the revolution and land reform to win back voters. Another report , dated May 9, recommends that the government "stop NGOs from venturing into rural areas" and force them to "seek authority" to work in the field. The Zimbabwean government last week stopped aid groups and non-governmental organisations from working in the country. Another secret report, dated May 15, detailed how the Joint Operational Command ordered that public intimidation move away from beatings "and that a new plan of snatching people from their homes and ultimately disappearances should now be activated". That week marked a dramatic surge in the abduction and murder of MDC activists. The alleged CIO master plan concluded that only a targeted terror campaign could stop the MDC, because "if the run- off is held, President Mugabe will lose the election as the people now have the confidence to come out and express their feelings without fear".

Responding to the documents, South African Presidency spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said President Thabo Mbeki "has already expressed his concerns about the political violence ". But he added: "We are mandated to mediate with the political leadership, so while we respect the fact that others will pronounce their views in public, we can't comment on this or that claim." Meanwhile, Tsvangirai was arrested again yesterday morning and released after three hours. Biti appeared in court after a court ordered that he be produced following his arrest on Thursday. At the closed hearing prosecutors said they planned to charge him with "treason and making malicious statements detrimental to the interests of the state", which could carry the death penalty, Biti's lawyer said. Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said Mbeki should tell Mugabe that if the poll was held under the current circumstances, he would not be recognised as president and that he and his ministers would never be allowed into South Africa. "It is so sad, unbelievable that we are allowing this to happen so close to home ... It's mass murder. That's what is happening in Zimbabwe right now," he told the Sunday Times. He said Cosatu was considering a border blockade at the time of the election. Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said it was too late to ensure a free and fair election as Mugabe was waging "a full-blown war of intimidation against his own people".

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