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'Defy your commanders'
22/03/2008 07:58 - (SA)
Harare - A rights group on Friday urged Zimbabwe's security forces to defy commanders who have vowed they would support only President Robert Mugabe to rule the country after next week's poll.
"You have heard your commanders declare that they would not support and salute anyone other than the current president," the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a coalition of rights groups campaigning for a new constitution for Zimbabwe, said in a statement.
"But it is this president and his elite that have made the lives of you, your families and all of us a daily misery.
"Go against the orders of your commanders, lay down your arms and rally behind the people of Zimbabwe to foster reconstruction and development."
"It is not too late to refuse to be used as pawns by those who hold no allegiance to you and your families and whose only interest is in their own personal greed and ambition," the text said.
Puppet rule
Police commissioner-general Augustine Chihuri was quoted by the state-owned Herald newspaper last week as saying his force would not allow "a puppet" to rule the country.
President Robert Mugabe, 84, seeking a sixth term at the helm of the country, has often referred to his challengers in presidential elections as puppets of the West.
The commissioner of prison services, retired major-general Paradzai Zimondi, also vowed last month not to accept anyone other than Mugabe as head of state, as he instructed prison staff to vote for the veteran leader, who has been in office since the nation's independence from Britain in 1980.
Zimondi said he would not salute presidential aspirants Morgan Tsvangirai or former finance minister Simba Makoni should either of them emerge victorious from the March 29 joint presidential and legislative polls.
In the run-up to 2002 presidential elections, widely condemned as rigged, Zimbabwean defence chiefs declared they would not support a president who did not participate in the war of liberation in the 1970s, as Mugabe did.
Brutal force feared
Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Friday in a statement deplored new electoral regulations passed this week by Mugabe which allow police officers into polling stations during the elections.
The regulations allow policemen in polling stations to assist illiterate or physically challenged voters.
The southern African country's police have often used brutal force against opponents of Mugabe and the police boss recently warned that his force could use firearms if necessary to crush protests after the polls.
Sapa-AFP
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