Zimbabwe Opposition Reports Crackdown

Party Offices And Hotel Housing Foreign Reporters Raided; Mugabe Poised To Fight For Power

(CBS/AP)  President Robert Mugabe's government raided the offices of the main opposition movement and rounded up foreign journalists Thursday in an ominous indication that he may use intimidation and violence to keep his grip on power.

Police raided a hotel used by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and ransacked some of the rooms. Riot police also surrounded another hotel housing foreign journalists and took away several of them, according to a man who answered the phone there.

"Mugabe has started a crackdown," Movement for Democratic Change secretary-general Tendai Biti told The Associated Press. "It is quite clear he has unleashed a war."

The New York Times said that its correspondent Barry Bearak was taken into custody by police.

"We do not know where he is being held, or what, if any, charges have been made against him," said Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times. "We are making every effort to ascertain his status, to assure that he is safe and being well treated, and to secure his prompt release."

Foreign journalists have been in Zimbabwe to cover elections in which President Robert Mugabe's party lost control of parliament. He is apparently facing a runoff for the presidency.

Biti said the raid at the Meikles Hotel targeted "certain people ... including myself." Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was "safe" but had canceled plans for a news conference, Biti said.

He said Thursday's clampdown was a sign of worse to follow but that the opposition would not go into hiding.

Mugabe is ready for a runoff, Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said, as the opposition claimed it won the presidential race outright and official results showed it won the majority of seats in the 110-member Parliament.

Results for the 60-member Senate, however, have been delayed, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said, citing "logistical problems." The commission said the results would be announced as soon as they are verified.

Mugabe was said to be pondering conflicting advice on whether to cede power or face a runoff - a humiliating dilemma for a man who has ruled for 28 years. On Thursday, Mugabe, making his first public appearance since the elections, was shown on state television meeting African Union election observers.

"President Mugabe is going to fight. He is not going anywhere. He has not lost," Matonga told the British Broadcasting Corp. "We are going to go hard and fight and get the majority required."

Independent observers say their own projection - based on results posted at a representative sample of polling stations - showed opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai winning the most votes but not enough to avoid a runoff, which must be held within 21 days of the first round.

International concern about the continuing delays mounted Thursday.

"We still have not seen the important thing, which is real live election results," said U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey. "We need to see an official tally, see it soon and have assurances made that this is actually a correct counting of the votes."

"Delays raise serious questions in our minds about what is going on in the vote counting," he said.

An electoral commission member indicated that the presidential results would be announced Friday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The commission said it still was receiving ballot boxes from the provinces, raising questions about where those votes have been since Saturday's elections amid charges of a plot to rig the results. Western election observers have accused Mugabe of stealing previous elections.

Official results for parliament gave the ruling ZANU-PF 1,112,773 of votes to 1,038,512 for Tsvangirai's party and 203,146 for Mutambara's faction. An independent won 54,259 votes and smaller numbers went to parties that won no seats.

A total of 2.4 million valid votes were cast, according to the figures, supporting opposition charges that the voters' roll of 5.9 million was hugely inflated with names of dead and fictitious people and some of the estimated 5 million Zimbabweans who have become political and economic refugees abroad.

The state-run Herald warned that Tsvangirai would hand back farmland to the whites if he becomes president. Tsvangirai has not said that, instead promising an equitable distribution of land to people who know how to farm.

Mugabe claimed his land reforms were to benefit poor blacks, but gave most seized farms to relatives, friends and cronies, with some senior officials and military commanders receiving several fertile farms that have been overtaken by weeds.

The Herald said white farmers had returned from Zambia and Mozambique and were threatening to evict blacks. It quoted the war veterans association that spearheaded violent land grabs as saying "We will be left with no option except to take up arms and defend our pieces of land."

War veteran Garikai Sithole urged Zimbabweans to "avoid aborting the revolution at this critical stage," according to the newspaper.

Sithole said people were blaming Mugabe for their woes, but: "When you cannot maintain your family and you turn around and say, 'It's Mugabe's fault,' this is just hiding from the truth."

Mugabe blames former colonizer Britain and other Western nations for the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy. Targeted Western sanctions, though, only involve visa bans and frozen bank accounts for Mugabe and about 100 of his allies.

Mugabe calls opposition leaders stooges and puppets of Britain. The Herald said "the British government and Prime Minister Gordon Brown have now come out in the open as the real power" behind Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change.

Religious leaders and diplomats were involved in a flurry of initiatives Thursday to try to persuade Mugabe to step down. Diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue said Western leaders were contacting southern African leaders. Amani Countess of the Washington-based TransAfrica Forum said religious leaders were asking counterparts in the region to pressure presidents to approach Mugabe.

Mugabe has ruled since his guerrilla army helped force an end to white minority rule in then-Rhodesia and bring about an independent Zimbabwe in 1980. But the man hailed as a liberator has become increasingly despotic and overseen the destruction of a thriving economy in the eight years since he ordered the often-violent seizures of vast tracks of commercial farmland owned by a few thousand whites.

Still, about half of Zimbabweans who voted in weekend elections marred by some electoral irregularities and intimidation chose the ruling ZANU-PF party, though a third of the population in this former food-exporting nation now depends on international handouts and 80 percent is jobless.

[lloydbest1]

"With inflation at 100,000% in Zimbabwe, any bets on Mugabe''''s pension?
My guess is that they will have to create new number to pay him.
Gazzilion anyone?"
Posted by bgwinnett at 11:13 PM : Apr 03, 2008

Hardly. With as much money he''s salted away in Swiss bank accounts (or maybe Antiguan ones - who knows) from his looting of the country, I am sure he''s well set up and 100000% inflation is the least of his worries.
Why I''ll bet he''s got some property in Dubai, already bought and paid for, and can settle in at moment''s notice. Hmmm.....Maybe he and Richard Cheney might become much better acquainted a few years down the road.

[bgwinnett]

With inflation at 100,000% in Zimbabwe, any bets on Mugabe''s pension?
My guess is that they will have to create new number to pay him.
Gazzilion anyone?

[sblake63]

You can thank the Methodist Churches for this mess.
The Methodist big wigs took collections from their members for decades, fraudulently called "Missionary Funds", to purchase arms to overthrow the legal government. Mugabe is the result of religious interference in government.

Yet more evidence that RELIGION POISONS EVERYTHING.



Posted by jmcgilvray at 05:28 PM : Apr 03, 2008

___________________

LOL on the day of Judgment for this dude, and he''s face to face with Christ, will he maintain these views? I think not. This boldness with fade to a soft wimper as Christ says "I dont know you".

[keithle1]

What a surprise! I''m shocked! Let me sit down & try to recover. Someone needs to take out this old slimey pig Mugabe with a bullet between the eyes & one to the back of the head just to be sure. What an evil snake.

Africa is full of selfish, power-mad dictators who put the people at the bottom of their list of priorities. Mugabe is just another one. He has done a great job of destroying Zimbabwe. Things were never this bad in the days of Ian Smith''s Rhodesia. Anyone with any sense & money has long since left Zimbabwe.

Just when you think it can''t get any worse in Zimbabwe, it does.

[lloydbest1]

If ever there was a case for U.S. intervention in a foreign land in support of justice and democracy this would be it.
Unfortunately we have meddled so frequently in the internal affairs of other nations, often of the "wrong" side; and in complete opposition to our own democratic principles that our credibility is shot.
Because our interventions have been, and are today, often motivated by furthering the interests of those already too wealthy and/or powerful, ANYthing we do with regard to Zimbabwe will be viewed with mistrust and seen as another example of unethical American interference.
While GWB deserves the overwhelming majority of the opprobrium for this sad state of affairs; in his defense, our Plutocrat friendly foreign policy has been embarrasing us across many different presidential administrations since long before our current president was even a gleam in his daddy''s eye.

[toolmangler-2009]

Yet more evidence that RELIGION POISONS EVERYTHING.
Posted by jmcgilvray at 05:28 PM : Apr 03, 2008



Man poisons "Religion", Blame the real culprit.

[dennishart4]

To prove a valid point, we posted video and pictures of who these un-human people act. This is not our fight, nor can we fix that mess. www.theoandavirus.com

[sharncedar]

"President Mugabe is going to fight. He is not going anywhere. He has not lost," Matonga told the British Broadcasting Corp. "We are going to go hard and fight ...


This is why Hillary Clinton needs to be embarrassed and excorciated by our nation. The attribute of being a fighter that refuses to give up is not something to wish for in your leaders, basically it is the characteristic of an insane dictator and a danger to any country. Every time Hillary Clinton points out how hard it is for her to give up, how badly she wants power, think Mugabe and the misery of Zimbabwe. She claims she is a "fighter" so does Mugabe, let''s please not turn our country into Zimbabwe I know you Clinton people are dumb, but i can only hope not as dumb as those people in Rhodesia.

[nolalou]

Without international pressure and threat of intervention, I''m afraid this will lead to bloodshed and a violent suppression of any opposition to the Mugabe government. This guy will not go quietly!

[aboz3]

I wonder when we will dispatch our troops?? OOPS I forgot, they don''t have any oil and are predominantly black... Nevermind!!!

[ricknuber]

This will turn into a bloodbath. Mugabe''s shock troops are North Korean trained, and his Zanu-PF Youth Corps are, essentially, rapists and murderers. Historically, he has been responsible for the massacre of thousands of civilians in the South of his own country and the systematic politicization of food aid, which most of the people rely on.

If there were ever a case for regime change, this would be it...but there''s no oil. So, to hell with ''em...right W?