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'Mugabe behaving like a warlord'
19/06/2008 14:03 - (SA)
Harare, Zimbabwe - Four opposition party activists were killed in a firebombing near Harare overnight, the party said on Thursday, the attack carried out even as South African President Thabo Mbeki was in Zimbabwe on a mediation mission.
The opposition has said more than 60 of its activists have been killed in recent weeks, and accuses President Robert Mugabe of unleashing widespread violence to ensure victory over Movement for Democratic Change candidate Morgan Tsvangirai in a presidential run-off to be held in just over a week.
Independent human rights activists have implicated police and soldiers as well as Mugabe party militants in the violence.
Movement for Democratic Change spokesperson Nqobizitha Mlilo said that militants linked to Mugabe's party were seen in the area before the firebomb attack on the home of one party activist. Mlilo said the activist and three colleagues were killed, an unusually high one-day toll.
Mugabe "is behaving like a warlord", Mlilo said. "This violence must stop."
Attempts to reach Zimbabwean police for confirmation of the firebombing were not immediately successful.
Wednesday, South Africa's Mbeki held talks with Tsvangirai and then late into the night with Mugabe amid increasing international concern that the June 27 run-off will not be free and fair. Mbeki, who has steadfastly refused to publicly rebuke Mugabe, left late on Wednesday without speaking with reporters. His spokesperson did not respond to calls seeking comment on Thursday.
Mugabe spokesperson George Charamba was quoted in Thursday's edition of the state newspaper The Herald as saying Mbeki came merely to review election preparations.
Immense pressure
Mbeki says confrontation with Mugabe could backfire. But Mbeki's decision to spend his 66th birthday with the 84-year-old Zimbabwean autocrat underlined the immense pressure he is under at home and abroad.
Mbeki is being urged to take a tougher stance or to show that his quiet tactics can work to persuade Mugabe to stop the violence before the election; possibly even to bring Tsvangirai and Mugabe together in a power-sharing compromise.
Tsvangirai has called on Mbeki to step down as mediator, accusing him of bias toward Mugabe. The Movement for Democratic Change said Tsvangirai met Mbeki in his capacity as a visiting head of state, not as a mediator, on Wednesday.
Mlilo expressed little confidence that Mbeki's visit would make a difference, noting "four people died that very day" the South African visited.
"Mugabe doesn't seem to care what the international community thinks," Mlilo said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanded action on Wednesday.
"It is time for leaders of Africa to say to President Mugabe that the people of Zimbabwe deserve a free and fair election," she said after a meeting in Washington with Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga - one of the few African leaders who has criticised Mugabe.
"You cannot intimidate opponents, you cannot put opponents in jail, you cannot threaten them with jail on charges of treason and expect to be respected in the international community," Rice said.
Odinga urged world leaders to pressure Mugabe to step down, and called the run-off a "complete sham". Botswana last week also protested to Zimbabwe - a sign that African solidarity with Mugabe is fading.
ANC president Jacob Zuma was quoted by South African media on Wednesday as saying the run-off was unlikely to be free.
Most observers have praised the conduct of the first round - although not the delay in releasing official results. But there are growing fears that Mugabe will steal the second round through violence and ballot rigging.
- AP
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Zimbabwe Special Report
