Free Republic

...Mnangagwa struck a conciliatory tone in the months leading up to the election. Declaring that Zimbabwe was “open for business,” he amended a law requiring local ownership of diamond and platinum mines. He signaled his intent to end farm seizures and vowed to sell off failing state enterprises. He even wrote a New York Times op-ed calling for democracy and equal rights for all citizens. But Mnangagwa is tied to numerous human rights abuses, including overseeing a series of government-ordered massacres between 1982 and 1986 known as the “Gukurahundi.” An estimated 20,000 civilians from Zimbabwe’s Ndebele ethnic group were killed....

HARARE (AFP) - The Zimbabwe opposition's number two was charged with subverting government on Thursday and faces a potential death penalty, as more violence was reported before next week's presidential run-off. Tendai Biti, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary general, faces four charges including subverting the government, election rigging and "projecting the president as an evil man." MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who faces President Robert Mugabe in the June 27 run-off election, dismissed the charges as "frivolous." The charges stem from documents prosecutors say Biti authored discussing plans to rig the March 29 first-round parliamentary and presidential vote,...