Zimbabwean officials fear prosecution if Mugabe loses

Top ruling party members are jittery about being tried in international courts.

from the April 15, 2008 edition

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"Robert Mugabe is a person who is surrounded by idiots, fools, thieves, criminals, unemployable people," says Innocent Kala, one of the founding members of ZANU-PF. Mr. Kala served as Mugabe's minister of home affairs in the 1980s until a falling out. "These crooks are holding him hostage. If he leaves, who will protect them?"

The signs of ZANU-PF's distress are seen in the fact that the once all-powerful party is suddenly negotiating with smaller parties in expectation that when the results from the March 29 election are finally released, neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai will have the 50 percent majority and will have to face a runoff. This outreach stands in stark contrast with Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, which continues to insist that it has won the election outright and is prepared to govern.

"For us, it is not safe to cede power whether we lose or win," says one veteran of Zimbabwe's war for liberation against the former white-ruled governmnent of Rhodesia, who could not be named. "The MDC would want a land audit, meaning some people will lose their farms. They would want investigations into the deaths of its activists, and some of our colleagues are not comfortable with that."

There is also a widely held view that senior ZANU-PF officials and Army chiefs were reluctant to cede power because they are afraid of losing the properties they looted or got through party patronage.

"In politics, you don't cede power easily, especially in a country like ours where the opposition is controlled by foreign countries," says one senior ZANU-PF official.

During election campaigns, the MDC told its supporters that it would replace all officials in key positions in major state institutions, a pledge that sent shivers down ZANU-PF spines.

The fact that the on-going political violence – particularly in the rural areas such as Masvingo, where houses of opposition supporters are being burnt down by ZANU-PF militia and war veterans – is happening with little or no rebuke from senior party leaders appears to be a clear sign that ruling party elite are determined to cling to power at whatever cost.

"If we are to leave power, we would want a guarantee from the MDC and the international community that there would be no prosecution of any crime," says another ZANU-PF official. "Even with such a clause we are very careful."

• A journalist who could not be named for security reasons contributed from Harare.

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