Mugabe warns Tsvangirai party "will pay heavy price"

[maddezmom]

Mugabe warns Tsvangirai party "will pay heavy price"
14 Mar 2007 16:01:22 GMT

HARARE, March 14 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government on Wednesday warned that the opposition would pay "a heavy price" for what it called a campaign of violence to oust it from power.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is in intensive care after suffering a suspected skull fracture in police custody, and rights groups and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) say he and 49 other opposition figures who were detained for three days were tortured over a banned rally.

Tsvangirai's arrest and alleged torture has sparked international condemnation and has once again brought Mugabe's controversial rule under the spotlight as Zimbabwe sinks deeper into its worst economic crisis in decades.

But in a statement on Wednesday, Mugabe's government was unapologetic, and suggested that Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues had been assaulted for resisting arrest and for launching a violent drive to overthrow his ZANU-PF party.

more: http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1480583.htm

earlier LBN thread here:
Reuters: Zimbabwe police crush prayer rally, seize leaders
Zimbabwe police crush prayer rally, seize leaders

By Cris Chinaka

2 hours, 4 minutes ago

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean riot police arrested the country's top opposition
leader and shot a man dead on Sunday as they crushed a prayer rally planned to
protest against President Robert Mugabe.

Witnesses said police fought skirmishes with rock-throwing opposition supporters
in the Harare township of Highfield, where organizers had tried to hold the rally
to address Zimbabwe's deepening political and economic crisis.

Police arrested Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai
and other opposition officials after blocking their motor convoy from driving to the
rally site.

The party said Tsvangirai and the others were severely assaulted and that one
MDC activist had been shot dead.

-snip
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2763547

[sharp_stick]

1. Mugabe is a friking nutjob

All this effort to oust one lousy dictator in Iraq and Mugabe can outshine him on the "look at me I'm a fucking megalomaniac nutcase" scale. Too bad for them they don't have a decent amount of oil revenue, they could use some regime change.

The world and especially Zimbabwe would be one hell of a lot better off if Mugabe had an unfortunate accident on the way to work one day.

[Bragi]

2. No more Mr. Nice Guy.... /nt

[President Kerry]

3. Mugabe's as bad as they come.

This is one of rare cases that really does warrant a foreign intervention. He's running the country into the ground, and its citizens are paying the price. Throw the thug out now!

[Mike Daniels]

4. Better watch out lest you inflame the pro-Mugabe faction

who support him strictly because he stuck it to the man. Pay no mind that the county has been run into ground in just the last few years under his rule...

[ellisonz]

7. Literally...Mugabe razed slums two years ago, evicting tens of thousands into the bush.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4755522

Mugabe is no better than Kim Jong-Il.

[otherlander]

5. There was a picture in the New York Times today

of one of the protesters who had to go to the hospital after being attacked by police. It looked like the doctors had to shave part of his head to treat a wound. This is fucked up. :(

[Matilda]

6. Only two things could possibly have any effect on Mugabe.

The best would be for his own party to disown him - surely they can see that if there is a day of
reckoning for Mugabe, they will go with him, and the end may be bloody. Better to get rid of him
and clean up their act.

The other would be for the rest of the African continent to condemn what he's been doing. So far
they've resisted making any criticism, principally because they're all black and they choose to see
it as a racial issue - the white world condemning a black leader. But it's gone way beyond that,
and they do themselves no credit at all by continuing to keep silent. South Africa in particular
should speak out, as they are one of the more powerful countries in the region. After all, it's
their fellow black citizens who are suffering, but that seems to have escaped their notice as they
continue to play racial politics.

[President Kerry]

14. great, insightful post.

I for one hope the military turns on him. But then again militaries are rarely beacons democracy.

Right on the spot on the second point. Africa must wake up and realize he's not doing them any favors. His anti-imperialist tune is not working anymore. His record of mismanagement and human right violation is plain for all to see. I would hope that some sort of a regional coalition led by South Africa will incite his ouster.

[ends_dont_justify]

8. atleast one good comes from him

Proves bush, atleast to the rest of the world and not us who have, ya know, common sense, is a war criminal for invading iraq but not touching this. Buck ends there though.

[arcos]

9. Mugabe is one of the major assholes of the world...

I've been flamed before for blasting Mugabe, but I really don't care... he's a huge human rights violator, an homophobic piece of shit, and a ruthless dictator.

Sure, the opposition could be worse, but that doesn't mean he's not an ass.

[Eugene]

10. Reuters: Zimbabwe's Mugabe tells West "go hang"

Zimbabwe's Mugabe tells West "go hang"

By Cris Chinaka

1 hour, 2 minutes ago

HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe on Thursday told Western countries
to "go hang" after a barrage of international criticism over charges his government
assaulted Zimbabwe's main opposition leader while in police detention.

Opposition officials say police tortured Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader Morgan Tsvangirai and several other opposition and civic group leaders
on Sunday when they tried to attend a prayer vigil in a Harare township.

But the government has suggested Tsvangirai and his group resisted arrest and
on Thursday upped the ante, accusing opposition supporters of waging a militia-
style campaign of violence to topple Mugabe from power.

"It's the West as usual ... when they criticize the government trying to prevent
violence and punish the perpetrators of that violence, we take the position that
they can go hang," Mugabe said after a meeting with Tanzanian President Jakaya
Kikwete.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070315/wl_nm/zimbabwe_dc

[maddezmom]

11. is that code for

go f' youself? :shrug:

[Chovexani]

12. Well

Looks like he graduated summa cum laude from the Dick Cheney School of Diplomacy.

[ButterflyBlood]

13. Mugabe's a thug of the worse type

He's probably one of the few world leaders who really does deserve the Mussolini treatment.