HARARE - A senior official within the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has warned villagers in Zimbabwe's Mashonaland Central Province that there will be an outbreak of war if Zanu-PF is defeated on June 27.
Mernard Muzariri, the deputy director general of the fierce organisation, which is known for its loyalty to President Robert Mugabe, warned that Zanu-PF would launch another armed liberation struggle should Mugabe lose to the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai in the forthcoming run-off.
Tsvangirai is widely tipped to win the re-run of an election which he won on March 29 by a margin of 47, 9 percent of votes polled to Mugabe's 43, 2. An orgy of bloody violence by Zanu-PF militants, including in the security forces, in the aftermath of the election has been strongly condemned both in and out of Zimbabwe.
Muzariri was quoted in the government media as saying Mugabe and Zanu-PF were defending the land "which did not come on a silver platter". Muzariri was speaking at Nyamahobogo Primary School in Mt Darwin where 63 supporters of the MDC, including two recently elected councilors, promptly announced they had "defected to Zanu-PF after realizing the MDC was taking
us for a ride".
In the face of sustained violence by Zanu-PF, some opposition supporters have taken to crossing to the former ruling party as a strategy to safeguard their lives and property.
The CIO boss said Zimbabweans should therefore "vote wisely" to avoid another war, adding that the people of Mashonaland Central had fought in the forefront in the previous liberation struggles and should not join hands with "sell-out opposition parties".
"Mbuya Nehanda was resident in this province and she died while defending land. On December 22 1972, the first AK rifle was fired (in this province) heralding the beginning of the Second Chimurenga and that gun was fired in Centenary, which again is in Mashonaland Central."
Muzariri hails from Mashonaland Central Province. The warning by the CIO boss comes in the wake of similar warnings by a top police officer, Senior Assistant Commissioner Musarashana Godwin Mabunda that voting for the MDC was tantamount to voting for war.
Senior Zanu-PF officials have repeated similar messages at several rallies.This also comes at a time when politically motivated violence is escalating throughout the country. The violence is blamed on the security forces, the war veterans and Zanu PF militias.
Source: Zimbabwe Times
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