Mugabe Threatens Opposition Arrests
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President Robert Mugabe threatened to arrest opposition leaders he accused of supporting mounting election violence, state radio reported Tuesday.
Mugabe on Monday accused Morgan Tsvangirai and other leaders of the Movement for Democratic Change of condoning “arson and violence across the country,” state radio reported. Mugabe called the violence systematic, showing that it was organized by opposition leaders, the radio quoted him saying.
Independent human rights observers, though, say it is Mugabe’s police, soldiers and party militants who have orchestrated widespread violence aimed at ensuring Mugabe wins a June 27 presidential runoff after coming in second to Tsvangirai in the first round in March. The independent observers have noted some retaliatory attacks, but say the opposition violence does not approach state-sponsored violence in scale or scope.
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Police have been holding Tsvangirai’s party secretary general, Tendai Biti, since June 12, saying he will be charged with treason, which can carry the death penalty. The MDC said in a statement Tuesday that Biti was still waiting to be formally charged.
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Mugabe, meanwhile, has campaigned freely at rallies given prominence by the dominant state newspapers and state television and radio, flying across the country in a presidential helicopter escorted by two military aircraft.
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In South Africa, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said the former president’s organization joins leaders and groups across Africa calling “for an end to the violence and intimidation, and the restoration of full access for humanitarian and aid agencies.” Retired Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also have signed the call.
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But at home, Mugabe repeatedly has declared that he would never cede power to opponents he accuses of being puppets of former colonial power Britain and the United States.
The Herald, a state newspaper, quoted Mugabe as saying the nation threw off colonial domination with a guerrilla war in 1980, and his party is ready to fight again to stop the pro-Western opposition party from gaining control of the government.
“We shed a lot of blood for this country. We are not going to give up our country for a mere “x” on a ballot. How can a ball point pen fight with a gun?” Mugabe was quoted as saying last weekend.
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Maureen Kademaunga of the independent Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe said: “This is genocide in slow motion going on in Zimbabwe.”
Mugabe, president since independence in 1980, was lauded early in his rule for campaigning for racial reconciliation and building the economy. But in recent years, he has been accused of ruining the economy and holding onto power through fraud and intimidation.
(Posted on June 17, 2008)
Comments
A black head of state is not that rare a thing. What’s rare is a black person elected president, then stepping down peacefully, after a later election. The first time in history was in the 1990’s. It’s only happened a handful of times since/ever.
Posted by at 5:52 PM on June 17
Sounds like Marion Barry in DC! or Mr hip hop in Detroit!!
weeee!!! woohoooo!!!
Posted by at 6:16 PM on June 17
“But at home, Mugabe repeatedly has declared that he would never cede power to opponents he accuses of being puppets of former colonial power Britain and the United States.”
And why should he? He’s only 84, just barely out of diapers. If I didn’t know better I’d get the impression the old boy thinks he’s going to live forever.
Posted by at 7:03 PM on June 17
All those who criticize Mugabe may face racial hatred charges in front of the International Court one day.
The only way how you guys can prove you are not racists is to unconditionally embrace Mugabe and blame all the irregularities that we are witnessing these days in Zimbabwe on the racist/imperialist British rule. Based on the experience with the traumatic post-slavery symptoms in the U.S., it will take Zimbabwe more that 250 years to overcome the trauma of British atrocities, stop slaughtering each other, and begin self-govern in a civilized way.
Posted by A Reader at 8:03 PM on June 17
P.S. I can think of even more convincing proof that we are not racists.
Let offer Mugabe a U.S. citizenship (in order to improve our nation’s diversity), amend a constitution that a black person may become the U.S. president even if not born in the U.S., and then promptly elect him to the Oval Office.
To make our proof easier, we should make it clear that anyone who is not going to co-operate in implementation of the above plan will be deemed racist and a hate monger.
Posted by A Reader at 8:08 PM on June 17
Living proof:
One man, one vote, one time.
Posted by Lost in Paradise at 11:28 PM on June 17
One man, one vote, one time.
Yup, one man, one vote, one time, one candidate still alive. The good old African electoral system in action. When/if Mugabe looses the (election) he will simply run off with what might remain in the national treasury and live in exile in Saudi being pandered by various heads of state, to include our own Rice, and being invited to various state functions because he is RICH!! There may even be a position for him in the state department of Pres Obama considering his extensive political experience in African politics.
Posted by Skip at 1:14 AM on June 18
In another thrilling episode, the idol of the African continent, that innovative leader of his own brave ‘new way,’ Robert Mugabe sallies forth slaying all opponents, and carrying out the “Revenge of The Mugabe,” - perhaps soon a Hollywood motion picture slithering into a theatre near you.
He’s allowed the people to have their damned election, and now his work becomes appropriately preparing things for the coming runoff election - the need for which his own vote counters have made perfectly plain.
But this man’s great swath across what remains of Zimbabwe is destined to be unstoppable - because he has announced, to the deafening cheers of those immediately near him, that win or lose, he will continue, with his army’s patriotic help, to go on ruling his very own country indefinitely - calling his many loyal followers to his cause:
Thugs unite! You have nothing to lose but public malcontents!
Posted by Gary at 1:09 PM on June 18
Better arrested than burnt to death, although Mugabe’s prisons are a death sentence in and of themselves.
Posted by at 1:36 PM on June 18
So Mugabe arrested some members of the opposition. I wonder what’s for dinner at the Presidential Palace tonight.
Posted by gee vee at 5:55 PM on June 18