Word: tsvangirai
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...Morgan Tsvangirai is leader of the Zimbabwean opposition Movement for Democratic Change (M.D.C.). His party won a parliamentary majority in the March 29 general election, and claims Tsvangirai also won the presidential race, beating Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years, with 50.3% of the vote. The official results have yet to be released, as Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) have demanded a recount. The state press is predicting a run-off between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, and a loose pro-Mugabe force known as the "war veterans" has begun a campaign of intimidation...
TIME: It's 10 days since the vote, and there are all sorts of rumors as to the direction of Zimbabwe, the intentions of Mugabe and the fate of the M.D.C. How do you see the situation? TSVANGIRAI: We are planning to use our political influence in the region to put pressure on Mugabe to concede defeat. He is trying to be defiant. The military leaders in the establishment are trying to subvert the will of the people. This is, in a sense, a de facto military coup. They have rolled out military forces across the whole country, to prepare...
...election campaign, in which the opposition was allowed to campaign more or less freely, suggested the regime was loosening its grip, or was at least divided and unable to repress. The days after March 29 saw further hopeful signs. The opposition declared victory, and Tsvangirai was even moved to declare the dawn of "a new Zimbabwe founded on restoration, not on retribution, equality not discrimination, love, not war, tolerance not hate." He even said, "After Saturday 29th of March, 2008, Zimbabwe will never be the same again." Unfortunately for Zimbabwe, Mugabe and the Zanu-PF seem merely to have been...
...security services on a hotel room used as an office by M.D.C. and the arrest of two Western journalists accused of working without accreditation (something they are routinely refused) on Thursday night. M.D.C. secretary general Tendai Biti reacted by saying Mugabe had "declared war." At a press conference Saturday, Tsvangirai warned of a gathering "war against the people," adding, "In the run-off, violence will be the weapon." Tsvangirai flew to South Africa late on Sunday for talks to try to bolster international pressure on Mugabe...
...that the regime takes pains to appear as though it is acting legally and heroically (organizing elections, denouncing the M.D.C. for prematurely announcing their results, railing against bloody colonial imperialism) while at the same time keeping an iron grip on power (sanctioning vote-rigging, beating up Tsvangirai and others, as they did last year, and, in Matabeleland in the 1980s, committing mass murder). Hence its appeal to Zimbabwean patriots to vote for Mugabe and against Western imperialism, while all but ignoring the plight of a people enduring an economic collapse that is only hinted at by the numbers: more than...