Mugabe vows against opposition rule
HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe vowed onSaturday that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change(MDC) would never rule Zimbabwe and that he was prepared tofight to keep them from taking power.
"We shall never, never accept anything that smells of ...the MDC. These pathetic puppets taking over this country? Let'ssee. That is not going to happen," he said in a speech at thefuneral of a former army general.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai will face Mugabe in a run-offpresidential election on June 27 after winning the first roundin March but without the necessary majority. Mugabe's ZANU-PFlost control of parliament in the same round of voting.
Tsvangirai, rights groups and Western powers accuse Mugabeof unleashing a brutal campaign, including using police toharass opponents, to win the run-off.
Tsvangirai and 11 MDC colleagues were held by police forthree hours on Saturday after being taken into custody at aroadblock. He has been detained several times this month.
The party's secretary-general, Tendai Biti, arrested onThursday as he returned to the country, appeared handcuffedbefore a judge.
At a closed hearing, prosecutors said they planned tocharge him with "treason and making malicious statementsdetrimental to the interests of the state", which could carry adeath penalty, Biti's lawyer said.
Despite ZANU-PF's parliamentary losses, the president, whohas ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, has shownlittle sign of accepting change.
"It is clearly impossible to talk about a free and fairelection in Zimbabwe," the MDC said in a statement after theirleader was detained.
WAR RHETORIC
The MDC says 66 of its followers have been killed inattacks since the March polls. But Mugabe, 84, blames the MDCfor the violence that has caused international concern.
A senior Western diplomat commented on Saturday: "We are inthe midst of yet another government crackdown and the evidenceis all around us. Zanu-PF is determined to win this run-off atany cost."
Mugabe again accused Western countries of interfering inpolitics by sponsoring the MDC.
"We have become the focus of the British and the Americans,he said. "The U.S. has provided $70 million to the MDC forregime change ...and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown isinterfering in our internal affairs.
"Never again shall this country come under the rule of thewhite man, direct or indirect -- not while we, who fought forits liberation, live," he said to wild cheers from thousands ofsupporters, including soldiers.
The former guerrilla commander told ZANU-PF youth membersin Harare a day earlier that liberation war veterans had toldhim they would launch a new bush war if he lost the run-off.
War veterans have regularly been used to intimidateMugabe's opponents and were involved in implementing thegovernment's seizure of thousands of white-owned farmsbeginning in 2000.
Zimbabwe's agricultural sector, once one of the mostprosperous in Africa, has collapsed, and shortages of bread,milk and meat are common. Inflation is running at 165,000percent and unemployment is 80 percent.
U.N. humanitarian officials say the situation is rapidlyworsening, with up to four million people in need of aid.
(Additional reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Gordon Bellin Johannesburg; editing by Robert Hart)