Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe raised the spectre of war on Friday by warning that his staunchest supporters are ready to take up arms rather than let the opposition triumph in a June 27 election run-off.
In comments carried by state media, the 84-year-old said veterans of the 1970s liberation war had told him they were ready to go into battle once more to avoid the prospect of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai coming to power after the run-off in a fortnight’s time.
Although Mugabe told supporters of his Zanu-PF party he did not want a return to war, he repeatedly raised the threat of conflict and warned voters against making a ”mistake”.
His comments added to the fevered atmosphere in the build-up to the poll, after Tsvangirai was twice detained while campaigning on Thursday and his most senior lieutenant arrested on accusations of treason.
Tsvangirai also saw his two campaign buses impounded on Friday in a move the MDC said was designed to cripple his campaign.
Meanwhile, a group of 40 leading Africans, including former United Nations chief Kofi Annan and Mozambique’s former president, Joaquim Chissano, said in an open letter they were ”deeply troubled” by reports of intimidation, harassment and violence.
The situation in the Southern African nation was also the subject of a session at the UN Security Council, where the world body’s humanitarian chief said food was fast running out.
In his speech to Zanu-PF followers at a rally north-east of Harare, Mugabe said a delegation of war veterans had approached him after the first round of elections on March 29 when Tsvangirai fell just short of an outright majority.
”They came to my office after the elections and asked me: ‘Can we take up arms?’,” Mugabe said.
”They said this country was won by the barrel of the gun and should we let it go at the stroke of a pen? Should one just write an X and then the country goes just like that?”
While Mugabe said he personally did not want to see a return to war, he also indicated that a Tsvangirai victory would spark a new conflict.
”Would you want to vote to go back to war, to fight for the country which we liberated?”
Economy in freefall
Tsvangirai has been repeatedly portrayed by Mugabe as a puppet of former colonial power Britain and wealthy whites, thousands of whom have had their farms seized by the state as part of a controversial land-reform programme.
The MDC leader, however, has accused Mugabe of being a dictator who has dragged the region’s one-time breadbasket into a state of ruin.
Since Mugabe began his land reforms at the turn of the decade, the economy has gone into freefall. Inflation, officially put at 165 000% is thought to be nearer two million percent while food shortages are widespread.
Tsvangirai is only taking part in the run-off under protest, insisting he passed the 50% threshold on March 29 but also aware he would hand victory to Mugabe if he boycotted the second round.
So far, his campaigning efforts have faced major restrictions and he was detained for a total of nearly six hours on Thursday after being stopped on two occasions by police in the centre of the country.
On Friday, police in the town of Gweru impounded the two campaign buses used to ferry Tsvangirai and his entourage around the country.
The buses, which carry the slogan ”Morgan is the One”, were only unveiled by the party two days ago.
Party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the move was a blatant attempt ”to cripple the MDC campaign.”
While Tsvangirai was still trying to hold rallies, MDC secretary general Tendai Biti remained in custody after being arrested within minutes of landing on Thursday on a flight from South Africa.
Although he has not appeared in court, police say he will be charged with treason in connection with an alleged plot to rig victory for the MDC in the first round and also for pre-emptively announcing the results.
Efforts for the Security Council to have a full debate on the situation in Zimbabwe have been blocked by South Africa and Russia, according to diplomats, although they did receive a briefing on Thursday from the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes.
Holmes described the food security situation in Zimbabwe as ”deteriorating very seriously, with probably only a quarter of the needs of the country likely to be met by the forthcoming harvest” and said a decision by the Mugabe regime to order the suspension all aid work was therefore ”particularly regrettable”.
‘This appalling violence damages children’
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s ban on international aid organisations has left hundreds of thousands of children in the country without healthcare and food, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Friday.
Mugabe’s government last week ordered all international aid groups and NGOs to stop their field work in a clampdown ahead of the June 27 presidential run-off election.
”The net effect is as many as 500 000 children are now not receiving the healthcare, HIV/Aids support, education assistance and food that they require. Many of these children are orphans,” Unicef said in a statement.
Unicef’s regional director for East and Southern Africa said many children in Zimbabwe would not be able to endure going through the southern hemisphere winter without support.
”The level of suffering for these children increases daily,” Per Engebak said. The aid group said political violence since a disputed March 29 first-round election has led to thousands of children not returning to school and several have become victims of the violence, some as young as two.
”This appalling violence damages children, their potential, and Zimbabwe as a whole. It must stop and it must stop now. All authorities have a legal obligation to protect children,” Engebak said. — Sapa-AFP, Reuters