Mugabe intimidates foes with veterans' march

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23951840

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Veterans of Zimbabwe's guerrilla war for black rule marched through the capital Friday, and while they were silent, there was little doubt they were out to intimidate President Robert Mugabe's political opponents.
In other signs Mugabe planned to ride out a democratic challenge to his 28 years of rule, intruders ransacked offices of the main opposition party and police detained foreign journalists overnight.
Mugabe's embattled ZANU-PF party was to hold a strategy session Friday, its first since it lost control of parliament in weekend elections. The opposition also claimed to have won the presidency in Saturday's vote, but official presidential elections returns had not yet been released.

Zimbabwe's liberation war veterans, key backers of Mugabe, said on Friday claims of election victory by the opposition MDC were a "provocation against freedom fighters."
War veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda told a press conference the veterans would repel any attempt by white farmers to repossess farms seized by Mugabe.
"It looks like these elections were a way to open for the re-invasion of this country (by the British)," he told a press conference.
90-day delay possible
Police escorted about 400 war veterans as they paraded silently through downtown Harare. The feared veterans in the bush war that helped end white minority rule often are used to intimidate opposition supporters and spearheaded the often violent takeover of white farms in recent years.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change asserts its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the presidency outright, but said it is prepared to compete in a runoff. Independent monitors' polls show Tsvangirai won the most votes, but not the 50 percent plus on vote needed to avoid a second tour.
The opposition has been weakened by internal divisions. But Friday, the splinter faction of the opposition indicated it would support Tsvangirai in a runoff.
Abednico Bhebhe, spokesman for the faction headed by Arthur Mutambara, told The Associated Press: "First and foremost our main motive is to support all forces against Robert Mugabe. Whatever formation is there to remove Mugabe, we are there to support it."
The law requires a runoff within 21 days of the first round. But Diplomats in Harare and at the United Nations said Mugabe was planning to declare a 90-day delay to give security forces time to clamp down.
A diplomat at the U.N. Security Council, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said if the runoff was put off the council might have to take up the issue.
Mugabe 'has unleashed a war'
MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said hotel rooms used as offices by the opposition at a Harare hotel were ransacked Thursday by intruders he believed were either police or agents of the feared Central Intelligence Organization.
"Mugabe has started a crackdown," Biti told The Associated Press. "It is quite clear he has unleashed a war."
Biti said Tsvangirai was "safe" but had canceled plans for a news conference. Tsvangirai was arrested and severely beaten by police a year ago after a banned opposition rally.
Tsvangirai tried earlier Thursday to reassure security chiefs who vowed a week ago not to serve anyone but Mugabe, according to a person close to the opposition leader. But an agreed meeting with seven generals was canceled when the officers said that they had been ordered not to attend and that they would be under surveillance, according to the man, who requested anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. He gave The Associated Press a copy of a letter signed by Tsvangirai and given to the generals outlining "MDC guarantees to the uniformed forces of Zimbabwe."
The letter promises generous retirement packages for those unwilling to serve an MDC government. It also promises not to take back farms given to officers under Mugabe's land reform program, except in cases in which an officer got several farms or if the land was being neglected.
It was not clear who barred the generals from the meeting. There have been reports of rifts within the highly politicized upper echelons of Zimbabwe's security forces.
Riot police detain journalists
The journalists, meanwhile, were detained by heavily armed riot police who surrounded and entered a Harare hotel frequented by foreign reporters and took five people away, lawyers said. The government had rejected most foreign journalists' applications to cover the elections, and had barred Western election observers.
Zimbabwe lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said two of those detained were jailed overnight and told they would be charged Friday with practicing journalism without licenses. She said the other three were released.
The U.S.-based National Democratic Institute said one of its staff was detained by authorities at Harare's airport as he tried to leave the country Thursday. Dileepan Sivapathasundaram, a U.S. citizen, had been working with local non-governmental organizations monitoring elections.
President Bush's national security spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, said Friday that White House officials were "troubled by reports we are hearing on the ground in Zimbabwe."
"Journalists and NGOs should be permitted to do their work," Johndroe said. "The people of Zimbabwe need a resolution soon to the electoral situation. The will of the people needs to be respected."
Mugabe has ruled since his guerrilla army helped force an end to white minority rule and bring about an independent Zimbabwe in 1980, but his popularity has been battered by an economic freefall that followed the often-violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms in 2000.
Mugabe has blamed his country's woes on former colonizer Britain and other Western nations. But Western sanctions involve only visa bans and frozen bank accounts for Mugabe and about 100 of his allies.
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