Many in poverty-striken Zimbabwe have nothing to lose, and fighting for their human dignity should not come as a surprise.
Once a breadbasket of the region and an example of economic prosperity in southern Africa, Zimbabwe has deteriorated into the continent’s poorhouse and is near a total collapse.…
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26 - RJ Elliott
More evidence that Mugabe is trying to steal the election by force:
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."
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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".