President unleashes army, rocket launchers, MiG-21s

 


SubHead:   Rumblings of rebellion: Opposition aghast at 'state terrorism'

Author:     Jan Cienski

  HARARE, Zimbabwe - Elements of Zimbabwe's army began leaving 
their barracks yesterday in an ominous sign that Robert Mugabe 
intends to rig this weekend's presidential election and is 
preparing for a fight if the opposition challenges him.

  Meanwhile, a group of up to 800 veterans of Zimbabwe's 
independence war has asked for foreign help to mount a rebellion 
against Mr. Mugabe if he steals the election.

  In Harare yesterday, Michael Quintana, editor of Africa Defence 
Journal, said he had toured military barracks in the capital and 
found soldiers were moving out in small groups of three trucks 
at a time. At Cranborne Barracks on the outskirts of the 
capital, he saw soldiers towing a BM-21 multiple-rocket 
launcher, a fearsome weapon that can can fire 40 122mm rockets 
in six seconds.

  "I was surprised to see the [rockets] coming out. They have 
never been used before, not even in the war in the Democratic 
Republic of Congo," Mr. Quintana said.

  He estimated two-thirds of the soldiers in each of the barracks 
had moved out.

  Three MiG-21 fighters flew low over farmland in Mashonaland West 
in an apparent intimidatory display meant to underline the 
threat being spread by ruling party thugs: "If President Robert 
Mugabe loses the election, we will go to war."

  Observers and the opposition worry Mr. Mugabe, the country's 
only President in 22 years of independence, is becoming 
increasingly reckless in his attempt to hold on to power.

  Already, his ruling Zimbabwean African National Unity-Patriotic 
Front party has moved to disenfranchise thousands of supporters 
of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

  The government-controlled election watchdog, the Electoral 
Supervisory Commission, accredited only 300 of the 12,500 
election monitors requested by the opposition Movement for 
Democratic Change. The party says 22 MDC election monitors have 
been abducted.

  Meanwhile, the government is planning to call on teachers, 
police and the army to supervise voting.

  "This is our major concern," said Reginald Matchaba-Hove, head 
of the independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network.

  The official election watchdog refuses to indicate the number of 
ballots that will be issued, making it easier to stuff ballot 
boxes, and has not said where the polling stations will be 
located.

  The voting rolls include the names of as many as 80% of the 
people in Zimbabwe who have died in the past two years, while 
thousands of the living will not be allowed to cast their 
ballots.

  Much of the country's tiny white minority has been 
disenfranchised and Mr. Mugabe issued a decree, earlier ruled 
illegal by the Supreme Court, which forces people to vote in 
their home districts. Thousands of MDC supporters have been 
chased from their homes and have sought refuge in Harare and 
other large cities. They will now have to brave gangs of ZANU-PF 
thugs if they want to vote.

  "If I stay in Harare, I will not be able to vote," said Desire 
Chikondi, an MDC party worker whose house was burned down this 
week by ZANU-PF youth militia members and who is now hiding out 
in the MDC's Harare headquarters.

  "I will take my risk and vote," he said, insisting he will 
travel this weekend to his hometown of Domboshawa, 27 kilometres 
north of the capital.

  In Harare, an MDC stronghold, the government has cut the number 
of polling stations by as much as 35%, the party charged.

  Meanwhile, as many as 100,000 soldiers and police officers have 
already voted under the watchful eye of their commanders and far 
from the gaze of any outside observers, Mr. Matchaba-Hove said.

  The government is also apparently continuing to register ZANU-PF 
supporters long after the official closing of the voters roll.

  Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader who is giving Mr. Mugabe his 
toughest challenge, accused his opponent of conducting a 
calculated campaign of intimidation.

  "The violence we have experienced in this country is state 
terrorism against its own citizens. It is using state agencies, 
state institutions that have been built specifically to 
terrorize the population," Mr. Tsvangirai said yesterday.

  The MDC says as many as 34 of its supporters have been killed 
since the presidential campaign began in January and fears are 
rising there will be an explosion of violence next week, no 
matter what the result of the election.

  If Mr. Mugabe wins, "We are going to fight, my friend," said an 
MDC supporter and trader in Harare's main market, while senior 
government officials have indicated they will not respect an MDC 
victory.

  Zimbabwe's army chief has already warned about the result of a 
Tsvangirai victory. Didymus Mutasa, ZANU-PF's external affairs 
chief, told South African television this week that if Mr. 
Tsvangirai wins, ZANU-PF will support a coup. "Many, many of us 
did not go to fight the settler regime in order to install a 
British puppet like Tsvangirai," he said.

  Despite the rising chorus of domestic and international outrage, 
Mr. Mugabe continues to campaign around the country.

  At a rally yesterday in his hometown of Chinhoyi, Mr. Mugabe 
returned to a favourite theme -- an attack on former colonial 
power Britain.

  "Now is the time to teach everyone, the British first, that when 
it comes to the issue of defending our national sovereignty, we 
shall not retreat," he said to an enthusiastic crowd of about 
8,000 supporters.

  He predicted victory and vowed to continue pursuing Mr. 
Tsvangirai after the election. The opposition leader has been 
accused of trying to assassinate Mr. Mugabe.

  "No murderer will go unpunished. No one we know to have planned 
such deeds will escape," Mr. Mugabe said in comments carried by 
state-owned television.

  The leaders of the Zimbabwean Liberators' Peace Forum, an 
association of mainly Matabele veterans who fought in the 
Rhodesian war through the 1970s, issued a dramatic request for 
help from both within Zimbabwe and beyond. Matabeleland has long 
been a bastion of resistance to Mr. Mugabe and an MDC 
stronghold.

  The appeal, which amounted to a de facto call to arms, risks 
being represented by Mr. Mugabe's government as proof of foreign 
military meddling in Zimbabwe.

  One of the country's state-owned newspapers carried a front-page 
story yesterday claiming Britain and the United States were 
preparing to support military insurgency in Zimbabwe.

  "We are appealing for financial and logistical support for a 
struggle," said Aleck Ndlovu, one of three directors who run the 
forum.

  "We are willing to defend the interests of the people of 
Zimbabwe at all costs and will not stand idly by if the election 
is clearly not free and fair," he said. "Our people are hungry 
and they are tired of what has happened here. People are willing 
to fight it out."



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