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Mugabe deploys troops as Zimbabwe general strike looms

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President Robert Mugabe's security forces fanned out across Zimbabwe Monday on the eve of a general strike called by the opposition after a judge threw out its bid to force the election results.

Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition urged Zimbabweans to show their disgust at the continuing hold-up by launching a general strike from Tuesday until the results of the March 29 presidential poll are released.

Police accused Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of trying to cause mayhem and issued a statement threatening that "those who breach the peace will be dealt with severely and firmly."

"The call by the MDC Tsvangirai faction is aimed at disturbing peace and will be resisted firmly by the law enforcement agents whose responsibility is to maintain law and order in any part of the country," it said.

National police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said officers and soldiers were being deployed throughout the country and a diplomatic source said the military was already camped out on the main arteries into the capital Harare.

In a further sign of mounting unrest, the opposition claimed that one of its election agents had been stabbed to death by Mugabe supporters over the weekend in what it claimed was the first politically motivated killing since the polls.

Police confirmed the agent, Tapiwa Mubwanda, had been killed but said the motive had yet to be established.

Dozens of riot police hovered outside the high court as Justice Tendai Uchena rejected a petition from the MDC calling for the electoral commission to immediately declare the poll result.

"The matter has been dismissed with costs" to be paid by the MDC, Uchena said, ruling that the electoral commission -- which says it is still collating results -- was acting within the provisions of the law.

The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) said it was not surprised by the ruling, which spokesman Patrick Chinamasa called an attempt by the MDC to force the commission "to announce an incorrect result and to cause confusion."

With their court bid unsuccessful, the opposition has called for the public to make a stand against the delay by staging a mass stay-in until the results are released.

"What we want is for ZEC (electoral commission) to announce the results. We hope every Zimbabwean takes it upon themselves to speak out and be heard. Voting alone was not enough. We want our results, the time has come," the party's vice president Thokhozani Khupe told reporters.

The ruling was a double blow to the opposition after a summit of southern African leaders in Zambia at the weekend merely called for the results to be announced "expeditiously," saying the matter should be decided by the courts.

Flyers handed out since the MDC first threatened Friday to stage the general strike have called on everyone from bus drivers to street vendors to join in.

But the impact of any general strike is likely to be muted as unemployment is already running at more than 80%.

Previous stay-aways called by the opposition and its allies in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions have flopped with few of the people still in work wanting to risk a day's pay.

However, the opposition is aware that Mugabe still exerts an iron grip over the security forces and is wary of sending its supporters to the streets to protest the current impasse. Police have banned all political rallies.

In March last year Tsvangirai himself sustained serious head injuries, as the government cracked down on opposition attempts to stage an anti-government rally.

At Saturday's emergency summit in Lusaka, regional leaders discussed the post-election impasse long into the night, but they stopped short of criticizing the Zimbabwean government or Mugabe.

Regional leaders have been chided for their traditional reluctance to speak out against 84-year-old Mugabe, seen by many as an elder statesman who still deserves respect for his role in winning Zimbabwe's independence.

Some three million Zimbabweans have fled to neighboring countries in the wake of the country's economic collapse under Mugabe, who has ruled uninterrupted since independence from Britain in 1980.

A one-time regional model, Zimbabwe is now groaning under the impact of the world's highest rate of inflation while even basic food products such as bread and cooking oil are scarce.

© AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

9 Comments
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The despot Mugabe refuses to give up power. Meanwhile, neighbouring countries remain silent. Perhaps they see Mugabe as a kind of perverse role model?

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Mugabe/Tsvangirai power woes in Zimbabwe. They should share power like Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki/PM Raila Odinga via by Kofi Annan/UN help.

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Mugabe has been a thug and a killer since before he seized power with the death of Rhodesia. Western powers have been his enabler the whole time. Only during the last few years, now that he has run Zimbabwe into the ground and the failure can no longer be masked by the Western media are world leaders starting to criticize his rule.

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Shame there isn't any oil in Zimbabwe. I'll argue that Mugabe is a nastier man than Hussein ever was, as Hussein 'sometimes' supported his own people. Mugabe would have no qualms in killing all of his fellow countrymen. The difference being that Hussein got strung up and Mugabe is still here.

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While African leaders pontificate the soul of the Zimbabweans burn. How arrogant is this man Mugabe to treat the citizens of Zimbabwe like they are children. He assumes that he is the only leader that can effectively keep them impoverish, no one else is capable of doing that. African leaders all come from the same hoe, splendid in their garnish over sized jackets propped up like wooded cobras with their protruding bellies. They posed for the cameras with fixed smiles as it for a moment we could ever be fooled that they have the African peoples' interest at heart. Any summit on the future of Zimbabwe is bound to fail if the participants are other African leaders. Mugabe is a mirror image of themselves, they see in him their own faith, clinging to power well beyond their use by date. This is why they have remain silent on what should be done. They have all effectively given their tacit approval to this deranged man in the hope that when their time come the same paralysis will befall the forces arrayed against them. There is only three kinds of African leaders, the one that is in power, the one that is in exile and the other most certainly is dead or in jail. Morgan Tsvangirei the opposition leader's underscores my point. But will he be any better?

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African leaders, especially Mbeki of South Africa, are a disgrace based on the way they have remained silent in light of all that has happened in Zimbabwe...they are an embarassment to the people of Africa.

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The entire Commonwealth is a failure.

Zimbabwe's rot is only slightly more accelerated.

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redacted - Zimbabwe left the Commonwealth over four years ago:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3299277.stm

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I have heard Mugabe has kicked virtually all the whites out of his country and most of them were the ones who actually knew how to farm properly..

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