Mugabe Talks of Retribution After Zimbabwe Vote: Places Army on High Alert [Excerpt] HARARE (Reuters) - Just over two days before Zimbabwe's closest-fought presidential election, Robert Mugabe warned he would pursue his challenger once the voting was over.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been accused of treason over a secretly recorded video purporting to show him discussing Mugabe's assassination with Canadian consultants who were actually working for Mugabe.
A private Zimbabwean newspaper reported Thursday that Mugabe's government had placed the army on high alert, recalled soldiers from leave and ordered those who live outside military barracks to stay home, ready to deal with possible trouble after the elections next Saturday and Sunday.
The weekly Financial Gazette also said the government had withdrawn some troops from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to beef up security and repeated remarks made by one Mugabe's senior officials early this week that the ruling ZANU-PF party would support a military coup if Mugabe lost power.
Mugabe told a rally in eastern Zimbabwe Wednesday that Tsvangirai would have to answer for the alleged murder plot after the elections.
"No murderer will go unpunished. No one we know to have planned such deeds will escape," said Mugabe, promising post-election retribution against those he said had committed crimes against Zimbabwe, though he mentioned no names. [End Excerpt]
Trick or treat - how to rig an election--[Excerpt] The various observers now in Zimbabwe have arrived in the last few weeks. Hence they will not have witnessed the last twenty two months during which 75% of Zimbabweans have been exposed in some way or another to state brutality. They will not have seen the beatings by Zanu PF, the destruction of the MDC infrastructure, the attacks upon just about anyone, the creation of no go areas, the mutilations and murders, the imposition of starvation on the many and the rewards for the Zanu PF faithful. They may not be aware of the subversion of the judiciary and the shaping of sinister laws that deliver basic freedoms, and the election arrangements, into the gift of Zanu PF. They may not have heard the poisonous and incessant state monopoly of the airwaves. They may not have smelled the fear. This might tempt them to subscribe to the informed view of Theo- Ben Guribab, Namibian Foreign Minister, who told us at the end of February that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe, just "manageable violence". Now there's a concept for the twenty-first century. [End Excerpt]