Mugabe: We shed a lot of blood
2008-6-17 08:16
Harare
President Robert Mugabe, campaigning for re-election in a presidential run-off on June 27, warned that he would not cede power to Western-backed opponents, the state media reported.
"We shed a lot of blood for this country. We are not going to give up our country for a mere X on a ballot. How can a ballpoint pen fight with a gun?" the Herald, a government mouthpiece, quoted Mugabe as saying.
Speaking in the local Shona language in the central Silobela district on Sunday, Mugabe said, that the nation threw off colonial domination in a guerrilla war in 1980, and his party was ready to fight again to stop the pro-Western Movement for Democratic Change from gaining control of the government, the paper reported.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking in London with United States President George W Bush, warned on Monday that international election monitors must be allowed to monitor the run-off or risk having Mugabe's "criminal regime" steal the election.
Free, fair elections
Brown said: "(Mugabe's) criminal cabal ... threatens to make a mockery of free and fair elections in Zimbabwe." Bush said the US would work with Britain and others to make sure the run-off poll was conducted to international standards.
Bush said: "The people of Zimbabwe have suffered under the Mugabe leadership and we will work with you to ensure this process leads to free and fair elections , which obviously Mr Mugabe does not want to happen."
United Nations special envoy Haile Menkerios arrived in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, on Monday evening and was expected to meet with Mugabe.
Menkerios had been sent by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with Mugabe's consent to assist the political situation.
Meanwhile, the secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change - the party's No 2 - continued to be held in the notoriously harsh police jail in western Harare, his lawyer said.
Filthy, harsh conditions
Tendai Biti did not make a scheduled appearance in court on Monday on treason allegations. Biti had yet to be asked by police to make a formal written "warned and cautioned" statement, needed before he can be arraigned, said lawyer Lewis Uriri.
Uriri said police had added two extra charges under the security laws - insulting the president and making statements intended to bring about disaffection in the police and security forces, both carrying the penalty of imprisonment or fine.
Biti had to make further written statements on the additional charges and should be brought to court after that on Tuesday.
Uriri said if Biti was not brought to court, the case would be taken to the High Court again to request it to order an end to delays that were keeping Biti in the Matapi police jail in the western township of Mbare.
The police station was known for filthy, harsh conditions used to intimidate suspects in custody. Uriri said Biti was denied a blanket in freezing nighttime temperatures in the Zimbabwe winter.
AP