Associated Press
By ANGUS SHAW and JOHN HEILPRIN
24 June 2008

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s opposition leader took refuge in the Dutch Embassy after pulling out of the presidential runoff, and the U.N. Security Council condemned the government Monday for a “campaign of violence” that has prevented a fair election.

President Robert Mugabe and other top leaders pledged to press ahead with Friday’s vote, despite the international criticism and the lack of a viable opposition.

In a unanimously approved statement, the 15-nation council said it “condemns the campaign of violence against the political opposition ahead of the second round of presidential elections,” resulting in the killing of scores of opposition activists and other Zimbabweans.

The U.S., France and some other Western powers tried but failed to include language asserting that Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be considered the legitimate president, until another fair election can be held.

Council members also warned that the violence and restrictions on opposition activists imposed by the government of President Robert Mugabe “have made it impossible for a free and fair election to take place” on Friday.

Tsvangirai returned to Zimbabwe a month ago to campaign, despite warnings by his Movement for Democratic Change party that he was the target of a state-sponsored assassination plot.

Since then, his top deputy has been arrested on treason charges — which carry the death penalty — and Tsvangirai has repeatedly been detained by police. His supporters have faced such violence that the opposition leader said Sunday he could not run.

Dutch officials said Monday that Tsvangirai sought shelter in their embassy in Harare following his announcement Sunday that he was withdrawing from the runoff, but said he did not ask for political asylum.

Tsvangirai “asked if the Dutch Embassy could provide him with refuge because he was feeling unsafe,” Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told the British Broadcasting Corp.

Even before Tsvangirai’s actions, some African leaders had begun to offer uncharacteristic criticism of Mugabe, an 84-year-old liberation hero whose defiant anti-Western rhetoric long resonated in a region with a bitter colonial past. Tsvangirai’s decision to pull out of the runoff and take refuge in a Western embassy may have been aimed at forcing his African neighbors to take a strong stand.

At a news conference in Harare late Monday, Zimbabwe’s police commissioner, Augustin Chihuri, said neither Tsvangirai nor his party had reported any threats, and police were not seeking the politician.

“Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai is under no threat at all from Zimbabweans and he should cast away these delusions,” Chihuri said.
Condemnation of Mugabe poured in from the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.

“In forsaking the most basic tenet of governance, the protection of its people, the government of Zimbabwe must be held accountable by the international community,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.

“Clearly, a government that emerges out of elections in which the opposition can’t even participate could not be considered free and fair or legitimate,” she said.

Tsvangirai won the first round of the presidential election on March 29, but did not gain an outright majority against Mugabe. That campaign was generally peaceful, but the runoff has been overshadowed by violence and intimidation, especially in rural areas.

Independent human rights groups say 85 people have died and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes, most of them opposition supporters.

David Coltart, a prominent opposition party member, said that in Harare not only had Tsvangirai sought refuge at the Dutch Embassy, but other top leaders had also gone underground.

“Virtually the entire leadership is hiding in Harare,” Coltart said.

Mugabe’s government insisted Friday’s vote would go ahead — with Tsvangirai’s name on the ballot. The intent appeared to be to humiliate the opposition.

The prospect of such an election drew strong criticism from the international community. But Zimbabwe’s increasingly autocratic ruler showed little concern for the world’s opinion — his police entered opposition headquarters Monday even as foreign election observers watched.

Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa said most of those taken away were women and children seeking refuge after fleeing state-sponsored political violence. He said police also seized computers and furniture.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said 39 people were taken into custody as part of an investigation into political violence. He said they were taken to what he called a “rehabilitation center” for interviews.

In announcing his withdrawal from the runoff, Tsvangirai said such harassment and violence against his supporters had made the balloting impossible.

Word of Tsvangirai’s withdrawal spread in Zimbabwe by text message and word of mouth. Some supporters said they felt abandoned, but others said Tsvangirai had no choice given the violence.

Militant groups roamed the capital Monday and cars and buses displayed Mugabe posters and fliers. One motorist said he hung a Mugabe party bandanna on his car mirror in hopes it would protect him from attacks.

Roy Bennett, treasurer of Tsvangirai’s party, speaking to The Associated Press in Johannesburg, called on the Southern African Development Community and the African Union to launch negotiations aimed at bringing members of the opposition and moderate members of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party together in a transitional authority that would create conditions for free and fair presidential voting.

He said Mugabe would not be welcome on the transitional authority or in a future government.

The issue of Mugabe’s role is believed to have derailed previous attempts to resolve Mugabe’s crisis by creating a coalition government. But Bennett said ZANU-PF would have to yield now in the face of growing international pressure.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has been mediating between Mugabe and Tsvangirai for more than a year under Southern African Development Community auspices. Bennett, though, appeared to be calling for a new initiative. The opposition has said Mbeki should step down, accusing him of bias in Mugabe’s favor.

Mbeki spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said a South African negotiating team was in Zimbabwe on Monday. But Bennett said negotiations could not open until state-sponsored violence ended and Tendai Biti, the party’s secretary-general, who has been jailed on treason charges since June 12, was released.

Mbeki has refused to criticize Mugabe, saying confronting him could close the door to talks. But other African leaders have shown increasing unease, and South Africa was under pressure to speak out.

Associated Press writers Art Max in Amsterdam, Jill Lawless in London, and John Heilprin at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Inthenews.co.uk
Monday, 23 June 2008

Morgan Tsvangirai’s failed challenge to Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe has left the international community up in arms.

He had been due to contest a second-round runoff with the much-vilified incumbent on June 27th but withdrew, claiming persecution of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters made the vote neither free nor fair.

The move ends hopes that Mr Mugabe would be forced to relinquish power through the ballot box, after a period of intense international attention on the state of the south African country.

It has suffered under an ongoing economic crisis for years largely because of Mr Mugabe’s failed land reforms. To read up on background to the election crisis click here . Read on for a summary of how Mr Mugabe clung on to power.

A new hope

On March 29th Zimbabwe went to the polls to choose their new parliament and re-elect president Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980.

That, at least, was the script from Zanu-PF’s point of view. Mr Mugabe was widely expected to breeze home through a mixture of his party’s natural dominance and – according to the cynics – a little vote-rigging.

The following day saw the first indications of what was to follow. Zanu-PF’s main challenger, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), claimed victory in the elections. Its supporters based their claim on unofficial counts of results published in polling stations across the country.

The Zimbabwe Election Commission remained silent as the world looked on. On April 6th Mr Mugabe requested a recount but it was not until April 13th that the election body ordered a partial recount.

Pressure builds

MDC supporters accused the president of clinging to power, a perception reflected by the international community’s attacks on Mr Mugabe. The UK was especially vocal in its attacks on Mr Mugabe, with prime minister Gordon Brown telling Harare he was “appalled” by the “intimidation and violence” Mr Mugabe’s “regime” appeared to be resorting to.

A legal challenge seeking the immediate release of results was brushed aside in the courts and it was only on April 20th that the recount finally began.

Six days later the results were in. No results were overturned as a result, but a second round was judged as being required in the presidential race. The MDC’s candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, was revealed as having won 47.9 per cent of the national vote on May 2nd.

Mr Tsvangirai’s backers described the result as “daylight robbery”.

Violence and oppression

Those who feared Mr Mugabe would use intimidation on the streets to help secure a win in the runoff vote were to be proved correct in the coming weeks.

Mr Tsvangirai returned to fight the runoff on May 24th and a senior MDC figure, senator David Coltart, appeared optimistic five days later. He appeared to predict a major electoral victory for the challenger.

A campaign of repression targeting MDC activists followed. Mr Tsvangirai was arrested several times; a senior MDC official was detained on a treason charge, facing the death penalty; and by the last week of June nearly 90 people were estimated to have died in political violence.

Mr Mugabe’s response was to dismiss the accusations as lies. He upped his anti-MDC rhetoric, hinting at the use of violence if his revolutionary changes were threatened. June 20th saw him stating at a rally: “The MDC will never be allowed to rule this country – never ever.”

By June 22nd the MDC had had enough. Mr Tsvangirai said the outcome of the election is “determined by… Mugabe himself” after pressure from party members unable to cope with the one-sided contest. The following day saw Mr Tsvangirai seeking refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare, while appealing for negotiation with Zanu-PF. Ruling party officials announced plans to go ahead with the runoff vote regardless.

Radio New Zealand
23 June 2008

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has withdrawn from a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe.

He says a free and fair poll is impossible in the current climate of violence, and urged the United Nations and the African Union to intervene to stop “genocide” in Zimbabwe.

“We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process,” he said.
Morgan Tsvangirai won a presidential election in March, but failed to secure enough votes to avoid a run-off against Mr Mugabe.
Zimbabweans are due to go to the polls on 27 June. Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa said Zimbabwe would proceed with the poll unless Mr Tsvangirai officially notified the election authorities he was pulling out.

In a later statement, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change said army helicopters were patrolling over Harare and Bulawayo, the second largest city, and that Zimbabwe was effectively under military rule.

It said more than 2,000 youth members of Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party were on the rampage, attacking citizens in central Harare.

Mr Tsvangirai has been detained five times during the campaign and the party’s secretary-general is in custody on a charge of treason. He faces a death sentence if convicted.

On Friday Mr Mugabe vowed never to hand over power to the MDC. “Only God who appointed me will remove me – not the MDC, not the British”, he said.

Movement for Democratic Change Senator David Coltart, told Morning Report regional leaders should remove diplomatic recognition from President Mugabe, to would force him to negotiate with the opposition.

PM condemns election ‘farce’

The Prime Minister says the election process in Zimbabwe has become a total farce, and there is no democracy, as anyone would understand it, in the country.

Helen Clark says the election process has taken the lives of countless people, and injured others to within an inch of their lives.

She told Morning Report if South Africa were to withdraw its support for Zimbabwe, it could have a dramatic impact on what happens there.

“South Africa has in effect sheltered Mr Mugabe, and his regime, for a long time. The only encouraging thing is that we are now seeing others of Zimbabwe’s neighbours speaking out strongly. That is a very positive development, becauseup until now the United Nations, for example, has not been able to get near this issue because of silence from Zimbabwe’s neighbours.”

Mr Mugabe, 84, has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The economy is in ruins: inflation is over 165,000%, unemployment is at 80 percent and there are shortages of food and fuel. Millions of people have fled the country.

Copyright © 2008 Radio New Zealand

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
By Africa correspondent Andrew Geoghegan
23 June 2008

Zimbabwe’s Presidential run-off poll is in tatters after the chief challenger to dictator Robert Mugabe pulled out of the race in a move to protect the people of Zimbabwe from escalating violence.

Opposition Leader Morgan Tsvangarai has called for international intervention in Zimbabwe after he says he realised that even if he won this week’s presidential run-off poll, he would be prevented from taking office by Mr Mugabe and his military backers.

Mr Tsvangarai says he decided to pull out of Friday’s poll because it would be rigged by Mr Mugabe and he feared that many of his supporters would die at the hands of Mugabe supporters and the army in a possible genocide.

Many observers thought Mr Tsvangirai was bluffing when he warned he may withdraw himself and his party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), from the run-off election.

It is now clear he feels as though he has no other choice.

“We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate, sham of an election process,” he said.
“The courageous people of Zimbabwe and the people of the MDC have done everything humanly and democratically possible to deliver a new Zimbabwe under a new government.”

It is a decision that will have brought both relief and heartache to Morgan Tsvangirai’s supporters.

Relief because they will no longer have to put their lives at risk by going to vote, and heartache because Mr Mugabe looks set to be declared the victor and remain as President.

The Mugabe regime claims the Opposition is trying to avoid humiliation at the ballot box.

“It’s a sure case that President Mugabe will win resoundingly, now this is what Tsvangirai has been advised, rather than face humiliation and defeat of this magnitude, he has been advised not to stand for the run-off election and this is unfortunate,” Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said.

“It is depriving the people of Zimbabwe to vote, to exercise their franchise and to vote him out because the people have realised that he is just a stooge.”

International support

Mr Tsvangirai has urged international intervention in his country to prevent genocide and has received support from a host of international figures.

Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith says he is very disappointed Robert Mugabe will claim victory by default and says the Government is now considering imposing more sanctions on Zimbabwe.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has labelled Mr Mugabe’s rule in Zimbabwe as tyrannical.

“I believe we have reached an absolutely critical moment in the drive by the people of Zimbabwe to rid themselves of the tyrannical rule of Robert Mugabe,” he said.

“It’s evident that the only people with democratic legitimacy are the Opposition because after all they won the first round of the parliamentary elections in March and the first round of the presidential elections.

“That’s why the violence is being meted out on such a scale by the Mugabe regime and that’s why I think that Mr Tsvangirai was left with no choice if he wanted to preserve the life and limb of his own people.”

Zimbabwe’s neighbour Zambia one was one of the first African countries to condemn the Mugabe regime’s violent tactics.
“It is unfortunate that they’ve pulled out of the run-off and I believe that they’ve been forced by circumstances,” Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande said.

Mr Pande also says the hundreds of observers sent to Zimbabwe to monitor the poll have reported the campaign was not free and fair.

“There’s been violence, there’s been intimidation in the country, particularly in the countryside which has made the campaign really not free and not a level playing field,” he said.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has repeated his call for negotiations between Zimbabwe’s Government and the Opposition.
However, that approach has been criticised by MDC Senator David Coltart who has described Mr Mbeki’s contribution to the crisis as “depressing”.

SADC divided

Senator Coltart says the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is divided over Zimbabwe, and has welcomed more positive statements from the Community’s chair Zambia.

“The only thing that has sustained Robert Mugabe and the cabal surrounding him is the diplomatic cover that they have been given by SADC,” he said.

“If that cover is now removed Robert Mugabe may find that he’s got no option but to negotiate with, not just SADC but with Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC.”

Senator Coltart says Mr Mugabe’s regime has waged a war against MDC supporters.

“Hundreds, if not thousands were being tortured and utterly brutalised, they had petrol poured over them, they burnt,” he said.
“There’s been a sort of low-grade war waged against our people in the last few weeks and it just seems to be intensifying, so it was a real fear of Morgan Tsvangirai.”

MDC’s Treasurer Roy Bennett says the Opposition has put people’s lives ahead of their quest for power.

“In last two days the level of violence, there’s a woman who had her arms, legs and breasts cut off in front of her family,” he said.

“Every single bit of democratic space has been closed down.”

Roy Bennett believes there is no hope of a negotiated settlement to Zimbabwe’s crisis.

“Absolutely no future for talks,” he said.

Morgan Tsvangirai has now gone to ground and he is expected to outline his plans later this week.

McClatchy Newspapers
By Shashank Bengali
Sunday, June 22, 2008

NAIROBI, Kenya — Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew Sunday from this week’s run-off presidential election in the beleaguered southern African nation, saying he could no longer participate in a race that’s been marred by the widespread intimidation, torture, mutilation and murder of his supporters.

The decision effectively hands victory to longtime President Robert Mugabe, whose supporters have engaged in a campaign of terror that has left at least 85 opposition members and activists dead in recent weeks, according to Zimbabwean human rights groups.

Tsvangirai concluded that Mugabe was determined to hang on to power at any cost and pulled out of the race to avoid further bloodshed, said members of his party, the Movement of Democratic Change. Tsvangirai was detained several times during the campaign and the party’s secretary-general, Tendai Biti, has been imprisoned on treason charges, which carry a possible death sentence.

“We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process,” Tsvangirai said at a news conference in the capital, Harare.

“We can’t ask the people to cast their vote on June 27 when that vote will cost their lives.”

Officials with Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party immediately said that Friday’s election would go ahead as planned. The information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, predicted to the BBC: “President Mugabe will win resoundingly.”

But Tsvangirai’s decision figured to put pressure on Zimbabwe’s neighbors to withhold recognition of Mugabe and persuade the 84-year-old leader to form a coalition government with his rival. Mugabe has long enjoyed the support of African leaders because of his role in Zimbabwe’s liberation war against Britain, but that support appears to be flagging.

Envoys from Tanzania and Kenya called for greater pressure on Mugabe to ensure a free election at a United Nations meeting called last week by the United States. But South Africa, the regional powerhouse and Mugabe’s staunchest backer, has refused to express concerns about the electoral process.

In Washington, Carlton Carroll, a White House assistant press secretary, released a statement saying: “The government of Zimbabwe and it’s thugs must stop the violence now.”

A statement on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s behalf deplored pre-election attacks on the opposition as “a blatant violation of democracy.”

By pulling out of the race, Tsvangirai “removes the rug of legitimacy from underneath Mugabe’s feet,” said David Coltart, an MDC Senator. “It’s well nigh impossible for any credible African leader to endorse this result.”

Tsvangirai said that he was open to talks with Mugabe and welcomed mediation by South African President Thabo Mbeki, although those efforts have made little progress since the first-round election in March. Tsvangirai won 48 percent of the vote to Mugabe’s 43 percent, according to the official government tally, although Tsvangirai’s party disputed the result and said that he’d in fact won a slim majority of 50.3 percent.

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 and initially won praise for promoting racial reconciliation, has driven Zimbabwe to economic ruin with a host of failed policies, starting a decade ago with the seizure of white-owned farms. He staved off challenges in previous elections with intimidation and vote-rigging, according to numerous independent analysts and civic groups.

Analysts said that Mugabe’s defiant rhetoric in the run-off campaign — he repeatedly vowed never to cede power and told supporters last week that only God could remove him from office — indicated that African leaders would need to dramatically change tactics to raise pressure on Mugabe.

“Now it’s clear that the crisis is going to escalate, especially if the response from (African leaders) is not robust,” said Denis Kadima, executive director of the independent Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, which sent monitors to observe the March voting.

The veneer of a free and fair election was stripped away long ago. Over the past two months, according to local and international rights groups, Zimbabwean police have arbitrarily arrested civic activists and forced several charity agencies to suspend their operations, charging that they were aiding the opposition.

The violence appeared to be worsening as the vote neared. Last Thursday alone, 12 people believed to be opposition supporters were found tortured to death throughout the country, according to Amnesty International.

Tsvangirai’s decision came hours after members of the ruling party’s youth militia, armed with clubs and sticks, beat several opposition supporters who were attempting to gather for a rally in Harare. The mobs, crammed into the backs of trucks and chanting ruling party slogans, also chased away independent election monitors, according to opposition officials and media reports.

E-mail sbengali@mcclatchydc.com

New York Times
By BARRY BEARAK and CELIA W. DUGGER
June 22, 2008

JOHANNESBURG — Tonderai Ndira was a shrewd choice for assassination: young, courageous and admired. Kill him and fear would pulse through a thousand spines. He was an up-and-comer in Zimbabwe’s opposition party, a charismatic figure with a strong following in the Harare slums where he lived.

There were rumors his name was on a hit list. For weeks he prudently hid out, but his wife, Plaxedess, desperately pleaded with him to come home for a night. He slipped back to his family on May 12.

The five killers pushed through the door soon after dawn, as Mr. Ndira, 30, slept and his wife made porridge for their two children. He was wrenched from his bed, roughed up and stuffed into the back seat of a double-cab Toyota pickup. “They’re going to kill me,” he cried, Plaxedess said. As the children watched from the door, two men sat on his back, a gag was shoved in his mouth and his head was yanked upward, a technique of asphyxiation later presumed in a physician’s post mortem to be the cause of death.

Zimbabwe will have a presidential runoff election on Friday, an epochal choice between Robert Mugabe, the 84-year-old liberation hero who has run the nation for nearly three decades, and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. But in the morbid and sinister weeks recently passed, the balloting has been preceded by a calculated campaign of bloodletting meant to intimidate the opposition and strip it of some of its most valuable foot soldiers.

Even as hundreds of election observers from neighboring countries were deployed across Zimbabwe in the past few days, the gruesome killings and beatings of opposition figures have continued.

The body of the wife of Harare’s newly chosen mayor was found Wednesday, her face so badly bashed in that even her own brother only recognized her by her brown corduroy skirt and plaited hair. On Thursday, the bodies of four more opposition activists turned up after they had been abducted by men shouting ruling party slogans.

The strategic killing of activists and their families has deprived the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, not only of its dead stalwarts but also of hundreds of other essential workers who have fled while reasonably supposing they will be next.

At least 85 activists and supporters of the party have been killed, according to civic group tallies, including several operatives who, while little known outside Zimbabwe, were mainstays within it. They were thorns in the side of the government, frequently in and out of jail, bold enough to campaign in the no-go areas where Mr. Mugabe’s party previously faced little competition.

“They’re targeting people who are unknown because cynically they know they can get away with it,” said David Coltart, an opposition Senator.

One such target was Better Chokururama, a 31-year-old activist with an appetite for bravado and fisticuffs, nicknamed “Texas” for both the cowboy hats he favored and the moniker of a torture camp from which he once escaped. He was abducted on April 19, and his legs crushed by his captors with boulders.

He said in an interview afterward, as he lay with both legs in casts, that he had told his captors “that beating people would not change anything because the opposition had beaten the governing party, ZANU-PF, in the elections.”

“They laughed loudly,” he said, “then threw me out of the moving vehicle.” Weeks later, he was snatched again, with two other opposition activists; the three bodies were discovered separately and identified by family members.

But the violence has been aimed not only at campaigners but at voters as well. So-called pungwe sessions, the Shona word for all-night vigils, have become common in areas where people once loyal to President Mugabe dared vote against him in the first round of voting on March 29. Villagers are rousted from their homes and herded together. Suspected opposition supporters are then called forward to be thrashed.

In Chaona, a village in Mashonaland Central Province, a man named Fredrick said he was among 10 suspected opposition supporters tortured for five hours under a tree. One man was caught while trying to escape. “They tied his genitals with an elastic band and beat him until he passed out and died,” said Fredrick, who asked that his last name not be used in order to protect himself. He said a second man was killed after his tormentors dripped bubbles of burning plastic on his naked body.

Prosper Mutema, 34, from Mtoko in Mashonaland East, said he was among dozens captured on June 4, taken to a torture camp and beaten all night with sticks and clubs called knobkerries. In the morning, he was ordered to hand over a cow as a “repentance fee.” Lacking so costly an animal, he pleaded for a more modest penitence, eventually winning his freedom with a bucket of maize meal and a chicken.

There have been dozens of killings, thousands of beatings and tens of thousands of people displaced, civic groups, doctors and relief agencies say. Though roadblocks seal off rural areas where most of the abuse is taking place, there are so many surviving victims and witnesses that human rights workers and journalists have been able to catalog much of the brutality. Pain is often inflicted through hours-long pummeling of the soles of the feet and the flesh of the buttocks.

“When Mugabe declares himself the winner, the world must know what he has done,” said the opposition’s director of elections, Ian Makone, who has gone underground and travels only at night. Two of his chief aides have been killed; several others have scattered into exile.

Mr. Mugabe, on the other hand, is campaigning boldly. A vigorous octogenarian, his life span is already more than double the national average in this destitute country, where inflation has gone so berserk that a loaf of bread now costs $30 billion Zimbabwean dollars.

Mr. Mugabe openly portrays the election in the terminology of warfare, a battle to preserve sovereignty against puppets put up by the British, the nation’s onetime colonial masters who in his view want to reclaim the land for white domination. Either he will win, he insists, or he will keep power by force.

“We are not going to give up our country for a mere X on a ballot,” he said in a speech last week. “How can a ballpoint pen fight with a gun?”

The opposition claims that Mr. Tsvangirai won a majority in the earlier round of voting, and that the government manipulated the count to force a runoff and ready its violent response.

Whatever the actual count, hard-liners in the governing party agreed on a “war-like/military style strategy” to recapture votes that had drifted astray and win a second ballot, according to the minutes of one of their meetings obtained from a ZANU-PF official.

“This is not going to be an election,” said one senior ZANU-PF official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the plans are secret. “The election happened in March. This is going to be a war. We are going all out to win this, using all state resources at our disposal.”

Army officers were sent to every province to direct the strategy, which eventually employed soldiers, intelligence agents, policemen and paramilitary groups known as war veterans and youth brigades called the green bombers, the senior official said. Ward by ward voting results dictated the campaign’s geography. In the Zaka district of Masvingo, once a reliable ZANU-PF stronghold, Mr. Tsvangirai won in March, and the opposition party also took three of four seats in Parliament and the Senate seat. Reprisals began within weeks.

Names of the opposition’s poll workers had been published in the newspaper as required by law, and these workers seem to have been systematically identified for nighttime beatings. Hundreds of them have since fled, leaving their polling stations vulnerable to ballot stuffing on Friday, said the constituency’s senator-elect, Misheck Marava. He said his wife and children were savagely beaten with chains and whips.

Then, on June 4 at 4:15 a.m., 13 men led by soldiers attacked the local opposition office at Jerera Growth Point, where some of those displaced by violence had sought a haven. At least two men were killed. The office was set afire with gasoline.

As one of survivor of the blaze, Isaac Mbanje, lay with maddening pain in a Harare hospital, skin peeling from his raw wounds and fluids seeping through the bandages on his charred hands, he described his ordeal.

One of the assailants ordered him: “Lie down! Keep quiet!” Then shots were fired from an AK-47. “One of the guys who was shot fell on my body,” Mr. Mbanje said. Then the attackers set both the dead and living alight.

Tichanzi Gandanga, the opposition’s director of elections in Harare, said he was abducted April 23 by men who blindfolded and gagged him and then thrust him into a truck. As the vehicle raced into the countryside, he was badly beaten and stripped before being dumped onto the road, where he was beaten and kicked and then, as he hovered near unconsciousness, run over.

The men attacking him were armed and could have shot him, Mr. Gandanga said. He is not sure why they left him alive, or even if they meant to.

“We had an election machinery with some important foot soldiers,” Mr. Gandanga said. “These soldiers were identified and eliminated.”

Opposition leaders assumed the carnage would stop once election observers arrived to monitor the vote. But that has hardly proved true.

Emmanuel Chiroto, 41, was elected to represent his ward in Harare. Fearful of attacks on his family, he sent his wife, Abigail, 27, and son, Ashley, 4, to stay with her mother outside the city. But on Sunday, fellow city councilors chose him as Harare’s mayor, and his proud wife came home the next day to celebrate, he said.

Soon after she arrived, he was called away because a ward chairman had been beaten up. While Mr. Chiroto was away, two truckloads of men firebombed his home and abducted his wife and child. Opposition party officials hurriedly contacted Tanki Mothae, a Lesotho native who is a key manager of the election monitors from the Southern African Development Community.
“The house was completely destroyed inside,” Mr. Mothae said in an interview. “The furniture, everything, was burned to ashes.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Chiroto’s little boy was dropped off at a police station. Wednesday, his wife’s battered body was found in a Harare morgue.

Mr. Chiroto still has not had the heart to tell Ashley that his mother is dead, he said. The boy told his father he had sat on his blindfolded mother’s lap as she was held captive and then he was left behind as soldiers took her away.
“We need to go get Mommy,” the 4-year-old has told his father over and over. “We have to go! She’s in the bush. Let’s go to Mommy!”

Independent, UK
By Basildon Peta in Johannesburg and Daniel Howden
Saturday, 21 June 2008

Zimbabwe’s main opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
will decide tomorrow whether to boycott what is seen as the country’s most
important election since independence. The run-off next week between the
MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe has been thrown into disarray by a
state-sponsored campaign of terror designed to overturn the regime’s
first-round defeat and prolong the President’s 28-year rule.

At least 85 people have been killed already in a campaign of political
terrorism, according to independent sources, and many more are feared dead
with fresh reports of violence flooding in from rural areas across the
country every day.

In an open letter released yesterday, Mr Tsvangirai appeared to lend his
backing to participation in the poll calling for “hope and courage”. He
signs off by saying: “On 27 June, let’s finish it.”

But intense pressure for a boycott has built up in recent days and many in
the MDC have lost faith in the run-off. An emergency meeting in Harare
tomorrow will make the final call, party sources told The Independent.

Nelson Chamisa, the MDC’s spokesman, said the party’s politburo and national
executive committee comprising all of the party’s representatives from the
provinces would convene in the capital, Harare.

“We need a proper election that will give birth to a new dispensation of
stability and democracy. The election that Robert Mugabe is shepherding us
into next week is a farce. It’s a charade and there is a strong body of
opinion within the party that we should not be part of it at all,” he said.

Mr Chamisa – who has in the past been badly beaten himself by Mr Mugabe’s
thugs – said that there were very strong arguments on both sides between
those who wanted a boycott and those who did not want it. “We will on Sunday
resolve the dispute between these two contending arguments,” he said.

Extensive canvassing of opposition officials conducted by The Independent
yesterday appeared to show a slim majority in favour of contesting the
run-off, despite the mounting death toll. “We are angered by all that has
happened and the brutality of it all but I am for participation,” said one
top MDC official. “We cannot give Mugabe the pleasure of getting declared
president without an election. That’s exactly what he [Mugabe] wants and
let’s not afford him that pleasure.”

Mr Tsvangirai is said to have agreed with an appeal by the South African
President, Thabo Mbeki, on Wednesday to scrap the run-off in favour of a
negotiated settlement. Mr Mugabe rejected that proposal.

Mr Chamisa emphasised yesterday that decisions in the MDC were taken
collectively. The spokesman said there were those who were worried that
participation would dignify a fraudulent election and others who felt that a
boycott would be a missed opportunity to prove that this election is not
free and fair.

The MDC’s secretary for legal affairs, Innocent Gonese, said he was in
favour of participation.

There is now effective consensus in the international community that the
run-off will not be free and fair, with increasingly strong criticism of the
regime’s actions being voiced by neighbouring countries through the Southern
African Development Community (SADC).

Roy Bennett, a leading MDC member, told South African television news
yesterday that the onslaught of violence will not stop Mr Tsvangirai from
participating. Zimbabweans have been “brutalised”, he said. “Beaten up. On
the backdrop of that we have to compete in these elections to show the total
illegitimacy of them.” Mr Bennett said events so far should give the
international community “reason to intervene, or reason to speak out”, but
he criticised regional efforts led by South Africa, adding that Mr Mbeki
should step down as mediator “and start speaking out”.

David Coltart, an opposition Senator, said that while he would not be taking part in the MDC
decision, as he is part of a separate faction, he hoped to avoid a boycott.
“We have no choice but to participate. It’s like a war zone but if one pulls
out one hands it to Mugabe and to that extent we have to make him go through
the process and force him to steal it.”

Observers from Western countries have been barred. The 14-nation SADC is
sending 380 monitors for the vote. The independent Zimbabwe Election Support
Network, which played a key role in recording the first round of voting,
said that only 500 of its 8,800 local monitors had been accredited. And
reports emerged last night that entire rural districts were barring
opposition polling agents. At the same time polling stations are being
positioned on land given to the same so-called war veterans who are
responsible for some of the worst violence.

Meanwhile, a magistrate rejected a bid yesterday to release the MDC’s
secretary general. Tendai Biti is being held on treason charges that could
carry the death penalty. He was ordered to remain behind bars until 7 July,
although the High Court is due to hear an application for bail on Tuesday.

Excerpts from opposition leader’s letter

My Fellow Zimbabweans in Civil Society,

Once again our democratic movement is under attack. Together now we must
decide how best to deal with a regime that has lost its way and now relies
solely on oppression and brutality to hang on to power.

We must continue to fight for the will of our people to prevail, without
losing sight of the democratic principles that drive us, inspire us and
unite us. We must continue together to stay true to our ideals and together
chart a way forward out of this disaster.

As the regime tries to crush all of us, we must stand together as one. If we
fall into despair or disarray, my friends, the regime will have succeeded in
its evil machinations to divide and discourage us. The democratic movement
as a whole was victorious on 29 March and that resulted directly from our
unity of purpose.

The crisis engulfing us now is the most serious since our liberation from
the minority regime of Ian Smith. Indeed, the wave of brutality being
inflicted upon our people is reminiscent of the worst days of that evil
regime …

My friends, many of us carry the scars inflicted by the regime during the
course of its slide into brutality and oppression. Many of us have dark
nights thinking about the suffering we have seen and thus far not been able
to halt. I do not fear more scars. The only thing I fear is not doing
everything in my power to stop the suffering.

Please continue to join us in our peaceful struggle for a new Zimbabwe …

Let us all be bold and of good courage together in the days ahead. Rather
than descend into utter despair, let us instead remember the victory of the
people on 29 March.

We need your help. Help us to remind our people that they are the winners.
That their courageous decision on 29 March was not in vain. Help us
encourage them to vote again for change on 27 June. Help us protect them
from the regime’s attempt to destroy their hope.

My friends, the regime is weak, but we are strong. The regime is lost, but
we are guided by the principles of truth and freedom. The regime is
illegitimate but we have the support of the people. And indeed one day the
evil forces within the regime will fail, while we, together, will triumph.

On 27 June, let’s finish it!

Zimbabwe Independent (Harare)
Muckraker Column
20 June 2008

WHATEVER the objections of the British or Americans to a flawed election, President Mugabe could always count on the loyalty of African states who were, it often seemed, prepared to look the other way.

Last weekend’s declaration by some 40 African leaders has put an end to that and signalled a more robust approach to dealing with Zimbabwe’s defiant rulers.

The 40 African leaders, including 14 former heads of state, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, signed a declaration published last Friday calling for an end to violence and intimidation ahead of the June 27 run-off.

“We are deeply troubled by the current reports of intimidation, harassment and violence,” the leaders said. They include Kenneth Kaunda, Festus Mogae, Benjamin Mkapa and the Mandela Foundation.

At the same time, Botswana lodged a formal protest over the arrests of Morgan Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti.

“These repeated arrests do not augur well for a free, fair, and democratic election,” Foreign Affairs minister Phandu Sekeleman told the BBC.

Biti was arrested for treason upon his return from South Africa last week.

On April 18 his lawyers had written to the Herald complaining that a document, published by the paper on April 14 headed “The Transition Strategy”, purportedly authored by Biti and dated March 25, was concocted and did not even bear his correct signature. Names of prominent Zimbabweans were misspelt (Nelson Chamisa was called “Antony”) and the language was calculated to arouse the anger of those aligned to the ruling party.

For instance, it proposes that chefs’ “girlfriends and cronies” be disinterred from Heroes Acre to make room for “Chiminya, Tandare and our other fallen heroes”, cars and tractors given to chiefs be repossessed, the judiciary purged, pensions to war veterans halted, and 200 farms returned to their previous owners.

“All our white farmers who are still in the country have been encouraged to visit their farms in the week running up to and after the election to assess levels of vandalism,” the memo claims.

This subsequently became the basis for reports by ruling party spokesmen that large numbers of white farmers had returned claiming their land and were harassing the current occupiers. No evidence was ever supplied to support the contention.
The current owners should be called “at odd hours”, the document suggested.

Commenting on Biti’s arrest, Bulawayo Senator David Coltart said “the law in Zimbabwe over the past six years has not been an instrument of justice, it has been a weapon in the hands of Zanu PF. “This is a shocking breach of due process.”

Coltart said the continued detention of Biti was an “enormous challange to Sadc which claimed to be mediating in the Zimbabwean crisis. “Is Sadc going to defend the basic tenents of democracy or not?” he asked.

What interested us about the signatories to the declaration by 40 prominent Africans were the names of Jerry Rawlings, Joaquim Chissano and Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar.

Rawlings was a kindred spirit of Mugabe 10 years ago, an anti-imperialist demagogue although less virulently anti-British. Chissano tried engaging our leaders during a visit to Harare a couple of years ago but was sent packing.

Now the two have joined hands to speak out against the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe. Their intervention will not be seen as helpful.

Equally annoying to the regime will be the signature of Abdulsalami Abubakar. He, it will be recalled, headed the Commonwealth Observer Mission to the 2002 poll which gave it the thumbs down.

Zimbabwe’s spin doctors then suggested the former Nigerian ruler was manipulated by the British. The state media even tried recycling this lie a few weeks ago.

What will they say now? That he has been manipulated for a second time? And what of the 39 others; were they also manipulated?

The propaganda is beginning to wear a bit thin!

On the subject of propaganda, we were interested to see the New African being cited as a source for claims that Zimbabwe had vast reserves of strategic minerals of interest to the US. The New African item appeared as part of a full page Herald advert.
“Apart from the greatest world deposits of gold, diamonds, platinum and chrome, the Americans itemised other strategic minerals in Zimbabwe,” it said.

Indeed, but what we are not told is that the quote comes from one of the state’s own paid-for insertions in the magazine.
“What do the British and Americans want from Zimbabwe?” the ad asks. “Our minerals” is the predictable answer.

What it doesn’t say is that the UK and US can easily find those minerals elsewhere in countries where mining companies are welcome and governments don’t help themselves to unearned holdings.

Ghana and Botswana have diamonds, South Africa has platinum.

The British and Americans invest in those countries which means growth for their hosts and enhanced employment prospects for their people.

What do Zimbabweans get out of a predatory regime that scares off investors?

“Together we can rebuild our economy using our God-given resources,” the ad says.

So what happened to the economy that requires us to rebuild it? And why hasn’t any of this reconstruction taken place until now?
Muckraker attended a conference at Meikles on Monday and joined colleagues for lunch at the Pavilion Restaurant. It was a bitterly cold day but our group and several others were exiled to the Siberian wastes of the patio.

That was because the dining room was packed with Sadc observers scoffing away at the buffet fare.

Without wishing to appear too patronising they all seemed to be about 21 and straight out of college. When Zanu PF extended its tentacles to Mabvuku on Tuesday they were nowhere to be seen!

The Herald is plumbing new depths by appropriating remarks made by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in Rome on food production and pretending he was talking about Zimbabwe.

The heading, “UN chief commends Zimbabwe’s role in food production”, was downright dishonest.

Ban Ki-Moon “praised countries such as Zimbabwe that helped small-scale farmers to pay for basic agricultural inputs such as seed and fertiliser”, the Herald reported.

In fact he never mentioned Zimbabwe.

But that didn’t stop the Herald’s business editor inserting several paragraphs of opinion.

“Zimbabwe’s congruence with the UN’s agricultural thrust has put paid to critics who were vilifying government’s programmes,” the Herald asserted.

“The farm mechanisation programme, Aspef, and input support schemes must therefore be expanded to increase Zimbabwe’s food production,” an agricultural expert was quoted as saying. “Through this Zimbabwe has all the capacity to meet its Milennium Development Goals,” the “expert” said. The similarity between what Zimbabwe was actually doing and the UN’s vision on food “came as a big boost for Zimbabwe to stay on course”, he said.

He didn’t say why agricultural production had fallen by 60%!

In fact, if anybody cared to call the secretary-general’s office in New York they would tell you just what the UN thought of Zimbabwe’s suicidal land policy.

There is no vacancy for Morgan Tsvangirai at State House because Zanu PF has enough cadres with quality leadership attributes to take over from President Mugabe, his wife says.

Grace Mugabe, who describes herself as the “mother at State House”, thinks Tsvangirai should instead go and stay with Gordon Brown at 10 Downing St.

“Brown can have Tsvangirai as his president because Zimbabwe does not need him,” Grace declared. Her husband was a simple man who had a record of working hard and fighting for the interests of the people, she said in Chikomba last week. “He is a man who would do anything for the people but the opposition lies about him.

“He does not have businesses or mansions anywhere,” she declared.

Don’t we recall her acquiring a mansion, dubbed Gracelands, some years ago? And what would she call her present abode in Borrowdale: a cottage?

As for Tsvangirai moving in to State House, that would be a matter best left to voters, not the current incumbents. Grace does not have the authority to determine who stays where. And her opinions are immaterial. The title “First Lady” is an American invention which Zanu PF happily adopted. It has no basis in law.

And Grace needs to be introduced to the expression about people living in glass houses throwing stones. “Tsvangirai is confused,” she said. “He does not think of anything but violence…Now his thugs are killing and assaulting people and the Western media is lying that Zanu PF is responsible for the violence.”

So there you have it. It was MDC thugs causing all the mayhem across the country. What we don’t quite understand is why they would victimise fellow MDC members!

And who are all those Zanu PF cadres “with quality leadership attributes” who will be moving into State House after the Mugabes have moved all their katundu out? Joseph Msika? Didymus Mutasa? Jabulani Sibanda? The mind boggles at all that talent!

As for those who fought and died for this country’s freedom, what would Grace know about that other than what her husband has taught her? If she would like to enhance her limited education in this field we can refer her to Edgar Tekere’s book that has some fascinating insights into her husband’s war record.

“The whites controlled the country for too long,” Grace thinks. “They exploited our natural resources to develop their countries in Europe. They were at State House for a long time. But what did they do for the country? Nothing.”

And what has she done exactly? Did she build any roads or clinics? Zanu PF can’t even fill potholes!

And what happened to the scheme to help street kids at Iron Mask Farm?

If Grace is going to make political statements she should be subject to the media spotlight. She castigated voters for rejecting “one of their own daughters”, Susan Chibizhe.

“I am prepared to go to war for this country,” she squawked.

And what outfit will she head: the Borrowdale Bling Brigade? Uniforms supplied by Armani.

Enough of this posturing. We are not interested in the crass opinions of the “First Lady”. All we ask of the Mugabes is that they allow Zimbabweans to express their free will and abide by the outcome. If the voters prefer a pro-British or pro-American party that is their right. Zanu PF has had its chance at governance and it failed. What does it want to do now that it couldn’t do over 28 years?

Financial Times
By Tony Hawkins in Harare and Tom Burgis in Johannesburg
Published: June 19 2008 20:27

Robert Mugabe’s government on Thursday slashed the number of accredited
Zimbabwean election observers, further heightening fears that the result of
next week’s run-off presidential poll will be manipulated.

During the first round in March, the 8,800 independent monitors from the
Zimbabwe Election Support Network collated information posted outside the
more than 9,000 polling stations – a process which, according to Noel
Kututwa, its chairman, was “critical” in curbing distortions to the final
tally.

On Thursday the network was informed that, of the 23,000 names it submitted
to the Ministry of Justice for accreditation to monitor the run-off on June
27, a mere 500 had been approved.
Mr Kututwa told the Financial Times the reason given was that the presence
of observers “disrupts the smooth flow of voting”.

“The idea is to make it impossible to do what we did [in the first round],”
he said. “It will be very difficult but not impossible.”

The news came as Bernard Membe, Tanzania’s foreign minister, warned “there
is every sign these elections will never be free nor fair”.

Addressing a meeting of the Southern African Development Community’s peace
and security troika, Mr Membe added that he and his two ministerial
colleagues would be writing to their presidents “so that they do something
urgently so we can save Zimbabwe”.

The minister said his assessment was based on evidence from more than 200 of
the 400 SADC election observers already working inside Zimbabwe.

On Tuesday the head of the 40-member Pan-African parliament observer
mission, Marwick Khumalo, warned that “violence is at the top of the agenda
of this electoral process”. He said he had received “many horrendous
stories. This election is a far cry from what we had [in March].”

Leaders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change on Thursday
reported another four deaths among party supporters. They said this brought
the total number of members who have died in political violence since the
March election to more than 70.

The harassment and arrest of MDC campaigners, the violence that is spreading
from rural to urban areas against people suspected of having voted for the
opposition in March, and the state media’s ban on MDC campaign
advertisements have contributed to fears over next week’s run-off.

David Coltart, MDC senator for Bulawayo, confirmed that although there would
be more regional observers this time they were less visible than in March.
He added that the observers’ role appeared to be “reactive not
preventative”.

While MDC leaders agree that the poll cannot be free or fair, they reject
the idea that Zimbabwe should be “saved” by cancelling the election.

The party’s leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is predicting a huge turnout. “On the
ground people are exuberant, they are triumphant, they are defiant. They
want to finish him off come June 27,” he said in an interview with the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.