Mugabe: 'I will not give up power'

Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe warned today he would not step down even if he does lose the presidential election to be held later this month.

“We shed a lot of blood for this country. We are not going to give up our country for a mere X” on a ballot. How can a ball point pen fight with a gun?“ he said in the government mouthpiece Herald newspaper.

Mugabe said that the nation threw off colonial domination in a guerrilla war in 1980 – and his party was ready to fight again to stop the pro-Western Movement for Democratic Change party from gaining control of the government.

Meanwhile, UK prime minister Gordon Brown, speaking in London with President George Bush, warned that international election monitors must be allowed to monitor the runoff or risk having Mugabe’s “criminal regime” steal the election.

“(Mugabe’s) criminal cabal ... threatens to make a mockery of free and fair elections in Zimbabwe,” Mr Brown said.

Mr Bush said the US would work with Britain and others to make sure the runoff poll is conducted to international standards.

“The people of Zimbabwe have suffered under the Mugabe leadership and we will work you to ensure this process leads to free and fair elections, which obviously Mr Mugabe does not want to happen,” Mr Bush said.

Meanwhile the MDC’s secretary general continued to be held in the notoriously harsh police jail in western Harare, his lawyer said.

Tendai Biti was scheduled to appear in court on treason allegations. But Mr Biti had yet to be asked by police to make a formal written “warned and cautioned” statement, needed before he can be arraigned, said lawyer Lewis Uriri.

The Matapi police station is known for filthy, harsh conditions used to intimidate suspects in custody. Mr Uriri said Mr Biti was denied a blanket in freezing night-time temperatures in the Zimbabwe winter.

Family members were eventually allowed to provide a blanket, fresh clothing and food during the weekend, the lawyer said.

Mr Biti appeared briefly in court on Saturday – the first time he had been seen since police hustled him off a plane as he returned home on Thursday. That appearance took place only after police grudgingly obeyed a judge’s order to produce him.

Treason can carry the death penalty. Mr Biti is also charged with announcing results of the first round of elections March 29 in breach of election laws.

Party spokesman Nqobizitha Mlilo called the treason charge “politically motivated.”

Concerns have mounted over the run-off election in less than two weeks between opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Mugabe. Since the first round of voting on March 29, opposition supporters have been attacked and arrested, and Mr Tsvangirai’s attempts to campaign have been thwarted by police.

He has been detained at least six times and two campaign buses have been impounded.

“It is clearly impossible to talk about free and fair elections in Zimbabwe and to suggest otherwise is to be clearly blind to the grave harassment, intimidation and violence that the people of Zimbabwe have had to endure over the past few years,” the MDC said.

Mr Tsvangirai finished first in the initial round of presidential voting, but according to official figures he did not win the 50% plus one vote required to avoid a run-off ballot.

Mugabe, meanwhile, has campaigned freely at rallies given prominence by the dominant state newspapers and state television and radio.

Yesterday he accused aid groups of using food handouts as a weapon to secure votes for the opposition and said they had seized national identity cards to prevent some people from voting, the state Herald reported.

Earlier this month, the government ordered independent aid agencies to stop all field work, leaving millions of hungry Zimbabweans more dependent on the government.