Zimbabwe crackdown leads to crisis

Pressure is mounting on Robert Mugabe's regime after opposition leaders were brutally beaten last week.

from the March 19, 2007 edition

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But it's too early to tell whether Mugabe's regime will collapse, and many experts say the defining blow will come from within Mugabe's own ruling ZANU-PF party, with a raging succession battle between two possible heirs.

For now, Mugabe's hold over the Zimbabwean military, police, and intelligence services remains strong. Most of his cabinet, and both of his two probable successors – Vice President Joyce Mujuru and Gen. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the rural housing minister – have ties to the Zimbabwean military.

Ms. Mujuru's husband, Gen. Solomon Mujuru, reportedly has contacted British, French, and US envoys in recent weeks, causing Mugabe to warn of a possible internal coup attempt.

There is "an insidious dimension where ambitious leaders have been cutting deals with the British and Americans," Mr. Mugabe said on Friday. He also said Western critics of his crackdown "can go hang."

As for the beating of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and others, Mugabe was unrepentant. "If they [protest] again, we will bash them again," he said.

Mugabe labels protesters 'terrorists'

Mugabe's strident public utterances have fueled tensions. On Saturday, he accused the opposition of terrorist attacks. "Scores of innocent people going about their legitimate business have fallen prey to terrorist attacks that are part of the desperate and illegal plot to unconstitutionally change the government of the country," he said, in comments carried by the official Sunday Mail.

While many Zimbabweans point to such statements, and his shifting of political heirs from Mujuru to Mnangagwa, as signs that Mugabe is finished, if not unhinged, others say that Mugabe remains firmly in control.

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