John Allen
19 April 2008
staff blog
Zimbabwean generals and government officials have told journalists reporting for Western newspapers that the military has taken charge of the process of intimidating voters and organizing the second round of presidential balloting to secure President Robert Mugabe's re-election.
The latest report confirming reporting in the Zimbabwe Independent and South Africa's Business Day this week, appears in Saturday's Daily Telegraph, in London.
In a report on Saturday headlined "Robert Mugabe 'mobilising command centres for national terror campaign'" - the well-connected Zimbabwean journalist Peta Thornycroft said hundreds of "command centres" led by war veterans in police uniforms were being established across the country "to wage a national terror campaign" of the kind which secured Mugabe victory in elections in 2000 and 2002.
Thornycroft wrote:
A senior army officer and a police chief described the president's re-election plan to The Daily Telegraph in Harare. At national level, the effort is being overseen by the Joint Operations Command, a committee of armed service chiefs. The two sources attended a meeting in a rural province on Monday morning. This gathering, which included traditional chiefs and local politicians, was addressed by two senior members of Mr Mugabe's regime.
She continued:
Each command centre will consist of three policemen, one soldier, and a war veteran who will be in charge. They will dispatch militias, comprised of war veterans and the ruling Zanu-PF party's youth wing, to assault and torture known opposition supporters. They will also control the local police to ensure that the militias are immune from arrest.
And:
At the meeting on Monday, a senior member of the regime told the chiefs that a "black against black" war will start if Mr Mugabe loses. He added that even if the United Nations deploys peacekeepers, by then people will have died. "You have to defend the revolution," said the politician. "If you don't and it is sold through the ballot we will go back to the bush and fight."
Thornycroft's report came three days after an unbylined report in the Washington Post which said:
... [A] Zimbabwean general, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described a meeting between top military officers and Mugabe last week in Murombedzi, about 55 miles southwest of Harare, the capital. After declaring to the president that they were in charge, the officers laid out a plan by which he would contest a runoff vote in conditions made far more favorable by military control of polling stations and central counting centers, the general said.
The Post's report suggested that military hardliners had taken control of key elements of government, including the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, and that Mugabe himself had been somewhat sidelined. It added:
The shift in power is "an interim measure that is meant to stabilize the country at this critical moment," said a top government official and Mugabe confidant, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "The arrangement is just temporary because once he wins [a runoff vote], as the army expects him to, he will be back in charge."
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I am not sure what the world is waiting for here but Zimbabwe needs you now not later. Mugabe is a fraud and this election is then you allow Mbeki do the talking which well I am sure is loyal to Mugabe. Please now for the people of Zimbabwe send in a military force that will actually protect the people there from this terror . Do not await for news about what is going on get in there and do something about it!
This election clearly was won by the opposition now as we set on out behinds and do nothing Mugabe is already at work with his terror regime there...
Please put a stop to this and Mugabe....
africa is for african so whites you should live africa alone only you want is to make us fight each other then you grab the steak
When army personnel takes over the running of a country, we call it a coup. why is the international community not taking heed of this and start mobilizing to circumvent the possible atrocities far devastating than Gukurahundi ever was or the Genocide in Burundi and Rwanda. The situation in Zimbabwe is right in the open and we now know why Mugabe ordered weapons from China. What are we waiting for?
What kind of military will take aim and kill its own populace except for a military that is corrupt and has something to loose. That makes this military a junta military and not a military of the people. Given that senario, the people of Zimbabwe have the right to defend themselves against the junta military by taking arms...Mugabe must know that if he tries to kill his own people using the military, a condition that existed pre-independence will happen where the "rebels" took to the bushes and wage a war against the oppressors. Zimbabweans will go to the bushes and wage war against the military and Mugabe. THis they will not be expecting the Zimbabwean mass to do. There will be an all out bloody civil war that Mugabe and his crooked generals will be shocked to find themselves in.
Let it be clear to the Military Mugabe and the so called war veterans, we the people of Zimbabwe will make ourselves veterans of the third Chimurengaa Zimbabwe is not for sale to Mugabe and his cronies the Chinese. We are ready to fight for our country, for our dignity and right to live in a prosperous country.
Long live Zimbabwe for the Zimbabweans.
John Allen's story does not make sense whatsoever. How can Mugabe's people claim that a terror campaign is under way in Zimbabwe and tell this, to a white anglo!!! I don't believe your article, it is just not true what you are writing. Zanu-pf members also believe in self-preservation and this would be out of character for them to admit guilty..especially to a white anglo!!! I don't think so. You are free to write that a terror of campaign is underway in Zimbabwe .....But to say that Zanu-pf gave that messege to you sounds more like the idiotic anglo propaganda...Come on...you are lying (your are a liar!!!)
when africa wonders why they are poor, wonders why they are marginalised, wonders why they are not taken very seriously, they need to understand themselves and their failure to adopt suitable standards that are the norm in western culture. Ian Smith was right about africa, we dont know how to govern ourselves. too bad Zimbabwe will have nothing in two years time, nothing at all, except an elite of black military and dictators.too bad the rest of the world doesnt care. There is no oil or weapons of mass destruction. The only solution is civil war. Let it be brutal and violent so that africa is again reminded that its he that holds the gun is the winner of any election but that it wont last too long. Sad.