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Opponents fear Mugabe army plotting bloodbath
Chris McGreal, Guardian (UK)
April 06, 2008

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/africa/opponents-fear-mugabe-army-plotting-bloodbath-1339602.html?r=RSS

Robert Mugabe was accused last night of preparing a war against Zimbabwe's people in an attempt to overturn the opposition's presidential election victory.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, who has already claimed outright victory in the election, even though the official count has yet to be released, said the government was reviving the war veterans and party militias to bludgeon the opposition into submission and terrorise voters before a run-off ballot.

"Violence will be the new weapon to reverse the people's will," he said. "Militants are being prepared. War vets are on the warpath."

Mr Svangirai called Mr Mugabe a lame-duck president and said he "must concede to allow us to move on with the business of rebuilding and reconstructing the country".

He said the MDC was reluctant to take part in a second round of presidential elections because of the mounting climate of fear -- although he stopped short of threatening a boycott.

Mr Tsvangirai said: "In the runoff, violence will be the weapon. It is unfair and unreasonable for President Mugabe to call a run-off."

He reiterated his claim that a runoff was unnecessary. His party claims he won 50.3 per cent of the vote, but the official election commission has still not released the results. Mr Mugabe appears to have emerged from one of the most turbulent weeks of his 28-year rule, which began with the shock of looming political oblivion, as determined as ever not to admit defeat.

South African president Thabo Mbeki warned the world yesterday not to intervene in Zimbabwe. He insisted the delay in announcing the results was in order for checks to be carried out ensuring that there was "no controversy".

Mr Mbeki, in London for talks with British prime minister Gordon Brown, is leading efforts to resolve the crisis over whether Mr Mugabe was defeated at the ballot box. He said that international outrage was unwarranted and called for a re-run of the elections. It 'was time to wait', he added.

Mr Brown used a press conference at a summit of world leaders attended by both men yesterday to repeat calls for the publication of the results, adding: "They cannot be any longer delayed."

But Mr Mbeki said the elections had been conducted so far in accordance with the rules, adding the delay was due to verification by the Zimbabwe electoral commission: "It is a process to ensure there is no controversy."

Yesterday armed police prevented opposition lawyers from entering Zimbabwe's High Court to lodge a suit for the immediate publication of delayed results of the presidential election.

Lawyer Alec Muchadehama said a senior police officer wearing a shirt of the ruling ZANU-PF party gave the order amid increasing signs of a clampdown against an opposition that won most votes in the March 29 presidential poll, according to independent projections.

"No one is going to enter. They say they are going to call the riot police," said Mr Muchadehama, a lawyer for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Journalists waiting outside the court were also ordered to disperse.

ZANU-PF said on Friday that it was endorsing Mr Mugabe, whose 28-year rule led Zimbabwe from liberation to ruin, to contest a runoff against MDC leader Mr Tsvangirai.

The ZANU-PF announcement pre-empting results from the ostensibly independent election commission, underlined that Mr Mugabe's party is Zimbabwe's most powerful authority. Independent projections show Mr Tsvangirai won most votes, but not the 50 per cent plus one needed for an outright victory. The MDC appealed for UN intervention yesterday to prevent bloodshed in a runoff campaign because it fears Mr Mugabe will use brute force to try to retain power.

Nelson Chamisa, a MDC spokesman, said there were signals that Mugabe, 84, was preparing to crack down. Feared veterans of the guerrilla war, used in the past to beat-up opponents, held an intimidating march last Friday. Opposition party offices were raided and armed police in full riot gear arrested foreign journalists in a show of force.

"They are trying to intimidate people, they are trying to set up the context for unleashing violence. The vampire instincts of this regime are definitely going to come out," Mr Chamisa said.

"But we cannot be alone. We need the international community to help us. The UN has to make sure that there is no violence in this country . . . They should not [wait to] come when there is blood in the street, blood in the villages."

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