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Zimbabwe President Preparing For Fight

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The Associated Press

Published: June 14, 2008

HARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe said Friday that his supporters are ready to fight if the opposition wins an upcoming presidential runoff election, hardening the rhetoric of a campaign that already has seen widespread violence against government opponents.

"I'm even prepared to join the fight," 84-year-old Mugabe told a conference of his party's youth wing.

Mugabe said the veterans of the war of independence in 1980 had approached him after the first round of voting in March and threatened to take up arms again if opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who officially won the most votes in earlier balloting on March 29 but narrowly failed to get a majority, wins the June 27 runoff.

The opposition is being thwarted in most of its efforts to campaign. Tsvangirai has been denied permits to hold rallies and has been detained several times. On Friday, his campaign buses were impounded by police in the city of Gweru.

A High Court judge, meanwhile, ordered police to bring No. 2 opposition leader Tendai Biti to court today and explain why he should not be immediately released, according to opposition attorney Selby Hwacha.
Biti was arrested Thursday upon returning to Zimbabwe from South Africa. The United States was among the governments that said the arrest of the top aide to Tsvangirai only deepened concerns the runoff would not be free and fair.

Since picking up Biti at the airport Thursday, police have refused to say where he was being held or when they might bring him to court. They have said he faces a charge of treason, which can carry the death penalty.

Information from The New York Times was used in this report.

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