Mugabe 'preparing to wage war on his people'

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe was yesterday accused of planning a "war against the people" to reverse his election defeat as pressure grew for international intervention.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, will todayseek to prove his claim that he took more than 50% of the vote by launching a fresh High Court bid for the presidential election results to be published after armed police initially prevented lawyers from entering the court.

Yesterday, he said that Mugabe's Zanu-PF party was mobilising war veterans and getting the central bank to print money in preparation for a violent second round of elections.

"Zanu-PF is preparing a war against the people," said Tsvangirai. "In the run-off, violence will be the weapon. It is therefore unfair and unreasonable for President Mugabe to call a run-off."

President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who is viewed as having influence over Mugabe, insisted the situation in Zimbabwe was "manageable" and appealed to the international community to wait for the full results before considering intervention.

But Gordon Brown, who was with Mbeki at the Progressive Governance Conference in Watford, said international observers should be present if there was a run-off between Tsvangirai and Mugabe and that the results must be announced. "We are monitoring the situation closely," he said. "I think the important thing is that the results have got to be published. They cannot be any longer delayed. They have got to be seen to be fair."

Brown's call for international assistance is echoed by Peter Hain in an article for Scotland on Sunday. The former Cabinet minister calls on the international community to "stand rock solid" and tell Mugabe that his time is up.

"After a colossal failure of diplomacy – for Britain, for South Africa, Europe, United Nations, Commonwealth – for everyone concerned, the international community must insist that the democratic verdict is upheld and that there is an orderly transfer of power, with Mugabe and his elite offered a safe passage if they wish."

The former Africa minister adds: "This is no time for diplomatic niceties or pretence that a re-run election could be a solution. Mugabe needs to be presented with the only language he has ever understood: an uncompromising insistence that he has no alternative."

In an appeal to his friend, Mbeki, Hain also says that Zimbabwe's southern African neighbours must help to seek "an African solution to this African crisis".

Mbeki and Brown are due to have further, one-to-one talks in private today, by which time Brown hopes the full results will be published.

Yesterday, the South African leader appeared exasperated by repeated questions on the crisis, saying: "Zimbabwe is not a South African province."

He added: "I think the situation for now is manageable. I think it is time to wait. Let's see the outcome of the election results. If there is a re-run of the presidential election let us see what comes out of that."

The law requires a run-off within 21 days of the first round of elections. But diplomats in Harare and at the United Nations say Mugabe is planning a 90-day delay to give security forces time to clamp down.

Veterans of the guerrilla war, who were used in the past to beat up opponents, held an intimidating march last week, while opposition party offices were raided and armed police in full riot gear arrested foreign journalists.

Tsvangirai said the violence and intimidation would get worse and appealed to African leaders and the United Nations to intervene to "prevent chaos and dislocation".

Election officials confirmed that Zanu-PF won 30 seats in Zimbabwe's senate, or upper house of parliament, with the combined opposition parties taking an equal number. But control of the senate depends on who becomes president because he and tribal chiefs appoint the remaining 33 seats.

No official results have been published from the presidential elections on March 29 and Zimbabwe's electoral commission would say only that it would release further results "when they are ready".

The MDC says Tsvangirai has won the presidential vote with 50.3%, avoiding the need for a run-off, but an independent projection puts him on 49% and Mugabe on 42%.

Mugabe, 84, has ruled since his guerrilla army helped create an independent Zimbabwe in 1980. But his popularity has been battered by an economic slide –there is 80% unemployment and inflation running at more than 100,000%.

INSIGHT: A broken nation