Mugabe's Murderous Plan

By John Mokwetsi

Mugabe's murderous plan

The next steps in the elimination of the MDC opposition in Zimbabwe

While the laughable "talks" about a peaceful solution to the political crisis stutter on, and while the general level of violence and fear ratchets up across the country, the military junta behind Mugabe move on remorselessly.

At the end of last week the five main Junta leaders - Constantine Chiwenga, Augustine Chihuru, Perrence Shiri, Emmerson Mnangagwa and Paradzai Zimondi - held a secret meeting with their President.

Details of that meeting have been passed on to me by a sympathetic source close to the junta. They reveal a comprehensive plan to, and I quote, "target and eliminate the MDC from the political map of Zimbabwe".

The plan covers all levels of government - cell, ward, district, province and national - and is backed by a general order to the security forces and the militia to increase the every-day level of violence against opposition supporters.

One specific measure is designed to wipe out the victory which the MDC secured in the recent elections, when they achieved a majority of seats in Parliament. This is how it will work.

Successful MDC candidates are to be targeted, attacked and threatened until they retreat into hiding or exile. When they have been absent from Parliament for 21 days their seats can be declared vacant, and a new by-election held. This time round MDC supporters will be cowed into voting for Zanu-PF.

Part of the new plan also takes into consideration the unfavourable stories that independent journalists have been leaking to the western media from inside Zimbabwe. The solution to that problem, the Junta leaders told Mugabe, is a simple one. Death - or the threat of it - to the journalists.

Action against some reporters has already begun, and several have taken steps to protect their families, then gone into hiding. A colleague who worked for the Zimbabwe Independent was recently abducted, beaten, and threatened with death unless he revealed his sources within Zanu-PF. Temporarily freed, he managed to cross the border to comparative safety in South Africa.

Meanwhile, on the international scene, Britain and America are still considering their options following the failure of their optimistic approach to the United Nations Security Council. Britain is now expected to ask the European Union to bring pressure on Zimbabwe.

Somehow I don't believe any action by the EU is going to have our dapper president trembling in his made-to-measure shoes.