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Zim rejects Tsvangirai demands
12/05/2008 20:14 - (SA)
Harare - Robert Mugabe's government on Monday brushed off opposition calls for conditions to be attached to a run-off presidential vote in Zimbabwe, as first round victor Morgan Tsvangirai prepared to return home.
After more than a month spent lobbying neighbouring countries for support as his country sank deeper into a post-election crisis, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai has indicated his return is now imminent.
But while Tsvangirai has insisted he will only run in a second round against Mugabe if the ballot is guaranteed to be free and fair, the government has ruled out any suggestion that Western observers will oversee the voting and said the MDC leader had no reason to fear for his safety.
"If indeed there was a threat to his life, we have got law enforcement agents," Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga told AFP.
"Mischievous demands"
"Those demands are mischievous. He has never told us he ran away from any kind of danger and as far as we know he is on holiday, at the same time trying to drum up support for his campaign to demonise Zimbabwe."
Mugabe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the government would not succumb to pressure from the opposition to invite certain international observers, and Western countries which have imposed sanctions are not welcome.
"We will think favourably of them if they lift sanctions. Until they do that, there is no basis to have any relationship with them," the state-run Herald daily quoted Chinamasa as saying.
After being widely criticised for staying out of the country so long, Tsvangirai announced his intention at a news conference in South Africa on Saturday to return home "within a few days".
But he said he would participate in the run-off only if there was a complete cessation of violence, a revamp of the electoral commission, and the deployment of international peacekeepers and foreign observers.
Campaign of terror
The MDC says Mugabe is orchestrating a campaign of terror to ensure a second round victory.
A number of opponents of the regime have been arrested, including the president and Secretary-General of Zimbabwe's main umbrella union organisation, who remain in police custody.
"They have been denied bail," lawyer Alec Muchadehama told AFP on Monday, referring to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union's president Lovemore Matombo and Secretary-General Wellington Chibebe who were arrested last Thursday.
A newly-elected lawmaker for the MDC was also arrested on Monday in connection with post-election violence in his constituency, a colleague told AFP.
MDC leaders met with Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Saturday to urge him to send regional SADC peacekeepers for the second round.
MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti told SA public radio there had been a commitment from dos Santos to ensure the run-off took place "within security of the law and that means peace and peace monitoring".
- AFP
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Zimbabwe Special Report
