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A Leader Lost to Despair
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In a single section of a single province, the former Mugabe stronghold of Mashonaland Central, at least 24 opposition party activists have been killed, said Shepherd Mushonga, a top opposition official from the area. Ruling party youths shot to death a newly elected local official from the opposition last Friday, then shot the man's brother, sister and mother before forcing them all to drink pesticide, Mushonga said.
Opposition activists -- and their parents, children, spouses, friends, neighbors and supporters -- have received similar treatment throughout much of Zimbabwe. Many of those responsible for helping Tsvangirai outpoll Mugabe in the first round are gone: hiding in frigid mountain hollows, convalescing in hospitals, recuperating in other countries. Others are dead or missing. Thousands of their homes have been burned into ash.
"We have been decimated," said Mushonga, who went into hiding last week and travels outside of a safe house only at night. "We have been crushed to the ground."
As the official death toll has climbed past 80, a country long admired as a beacon of peaceful progress -- blessed with a mild climate and superior public schools -- has become the disgrace of the continent. African leaders such as South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade and Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa broke with tradition to criticize Mugabe in terms rarely used against fellow leaders. The normally timid Southern African Development Community called for postponement of the election.
Mugabe fired back Thursday, charging in a rally broadcast on state television that the Africans had fallen under the sway of President Bush or Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, critics of Mugabe.
"We still have voices coming today saying we should cancel our elections," Mugabe said with mock surprise. "What stupidity is that?"
Mugabe also hinted at the possibility of talks with the opposition -- years of which have failed to ease the political crisis here -- after the vote and, presumably, his victory.
Police already have been forced to cast ballots in front of superiors, said a 32-year-old officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He voted for Tsvangirai in March but for Mugabe in a police barracks southeast of Harare on Tuesday, along with hundreds of others. He said he feared losing his job, or worse. "These things can happen to you whether you are a police officer or not," he said.
Word has spread widely through Zimbabwe that those who fail to display pinkies marked with the telltale purple ink of voters will be beaten by Mugabe's ruling party militias. And it is widely believed that the military and youth militias also are able to track individual votes by the serial numbers on the ballots. Anything but a Mugabe vote will result in violent retribution, many here believe.
"People will be led like sheep to the slaughter," Tsvangirai said. "If you don't show your finger that you've voted, you'll be beaten."
Tsvangirai offered little hope that the situation would change soon. Though the party is sending a delegation to an African Union meeting in Egypt next week in hopes of building still more diplomatic pressure on Mugabe, his optimism seemed sapped three months after bringing his nation to the verge of a new era.
"Winning an election," he said, "is not the same as winning power."
