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Military Leaders Making the Decisions in Zimbabwe
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Two people have died since the election. Dozens of others have been beaten, whipped and threatened by ruling party youth militias, opposition activists say. Veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war have occupied many of the remaining white-owned commercial farms. As police checkpoints on Zimbabwe's highways have proliferated, a growing number are monitored by military policemen or officers of Mugabe's secret police.
Such harsh tactics were common in previous elections, especially in 2000 and 2002; this year's vote was generally regarded as less violent. The following day, results were posted at individual polling stations, which allowed both the opposition and independent monitors to compile tallies showing the extent of Mugabe's loss.
This more relaxed atmosphere, which resulted largely from pressure applied by leaders of other countries of southern Africa, changed in the days after the election. Through increasingly belligerent statements, ruling party figures vowed to defeat Tsvangirai in a runoff and challenged the results of several parliamentary seats they lost.
Seven election officials were arrested, as were several journalists covering the election amid intensive restrictions on news gathering.
This crackdown has come since the Joint Operations Command took operational control of the ruling party's political strategy and the country's electoral mechanisms and internal security measures, the senior government sources, diplomats and analysts said. The pretext, they said, is a national security threat posed by a possible victory by Tsvangirai, whom officials long have accused of colluding with Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler, Britain, to help it reassert control.
Former Mugabe information minister Jonathan Moyo, who broke with the president and now is an independent lawmaker, said that when he was in the cabinet from 2000 to 2005, major decisions needed the approval of the securocrats, much as a company's chief executive officer submits major initiatives to a board of directors.
Since the vote, Moyo said, power has shifted from Mugabe, whom he called "a hostage president."
"His role is as a weakened CEO," Moyo said. "Still CEO, but one who cannot disagree with his boss."
