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Last Updated: Oct 28th, 2008 - 17:57:18 |
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe threatened on Monday to arrest opposition leaders over election campaign violence for which his opponents blame ruling party supporters.
Branding Zimbabwe's government a "criminal regime", British Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined U.S. President George W. Bush in urging Mugabe to allow international monitors to ensure a free and fair presidential run-off election on June 27.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been repeatedly detained during his campaign, but has faced no charges. His Movement for Democratic Change party says 66 people have been killed in the election violence by ruling ZANU-PF supporters.
Mugabe blames the opposition for the disturbances.
"There is now a pattern readable across the country and that has now to stop," he told a campaign rally in Kadoma, 150 km (90 miles) south of capital Harare.
"We are warning them that we will not hesitate to arrest them, and we will do that in broad daylight. They think they are protected by the British and the Americans. The law of the country has to be observed."
Mugabe is battling to keep his 28-year hold on power in a country suffering economic collapse. Tsvangirai won the first poll in March but without enough votes for an outright victory, official results show.
At a joint news conference in London after talks with U.S. President George W. Bush, the British prime minister described Zimbabwe's government as an "increasingly desperate and criminal regime" and accused it of orchestrating the violence.
"Mugabe must not be allowed to steal the election," he said.
"We call for Zimbabwe to accept a United Nations human rights envoy to visit Zimbabwe now and to accept international monitors from all parts of the world who are available to ensure that this is a free and fair election," Brown said.
HARSH WORDS
Former colonial power Britain has long been critical of Mugabe but has increased the harshness of its language in recent days.
A senior U.N. envoy, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Haile Menkerios, arrives in Zimbabwe late on Monday for a five-day visit to assess Zimbabwe's political and humanitarian crisis ahead of the run-off vote.
Observers from Western countries were barred from the first round ballot on March 29 and are not being allowed in for the run-off. The African Union and Southern African Development Community will send teams.
Bush offered his support to Brown's call.
"We will work with you to ensure these good folks have free and fair elections to the best extent possible, which obviously Mr Mugabe does not want to have," he said.
Mugabe, 84, has held power since independence from Britain in 1980. His ZANU-PF lost control of parliament in the March 29 election, but the president has the greatest say in running the country.
Critics say the economy has been ruined by Mugabe's policies, such as seizing white-owned farms to give to landless blacks. He says Western sanctions are responsible.
Zimbabwe's once prosperous economy has collapsed, with official inflation running at 165,000 percent, unemployment at around 80 percent and food and fuel in short supply. Millions of Zimbabweans have sought work abroad, most heading to South Africa, where their presence has stoked social tensions.
Zimbabwe ordered aid agencies to stop work on June 4, accusing them of working against his ZANU-PF party.
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