Zimbabwe nears state of emergency as the anti-Mugabe rebellion grows

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is preparing to declare a state of emergency to try to keep control of the country as pressure mounts against him internally and externally.

Authoritative sources said Mr Mugabe's cabinet had agreed in principle at a meeting last week to impose a state of emergency if current measures put in place did not "bring the country to order". It would result in a curfew with all opposition activities banned and the movement of people severely restricted.

Zimbabwe last saw the imposition of states of emergency in the early 1980s when Mr Mugabe battled to contain a rebellion by bands of dissidents against his government in southern Zimbabwe. In the subsequent crackdown more than 20 000 civilians were murdered.

The brutal assaults by police on opposition leaders last week seem to have backfired on Mr Mugabe on all fronts, increasing pressure on him to resign. Internally, they united the two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a renewed determination to drive him from power.

Externally, the assaults provoked a rising chorus of condemnation from around the world and threats of more sanctions. They even prompted southern African regional governments - which have largely done nothing about Zimbabwe so far - to consider taking action. Their leaders are concerned about a spillover from the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, where inflation stands at 1,730 percent and unemployment at 80 percent.

The Tanzanian government announced this week that Tanzania, Namibia and Lesotho, the three governments currently responsible for regional security in the Southern African Development Community, would meet on 26 and 27 March in Dar es Salaam to discuss the crisis. And yesterday, the African Union expressed "great concern" about Zimbabwe's crisis and called for human rights to be respected.

After his release from hospital, where he was treated for the head injuries inflicted by police last Sunday, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main MDC faction, said he believed democratic change was now in sight. He said he had endured an "orgy of beatings" in custody, adding: "They brutalised my flesh. But they will never break my spirit. I will soldier on until Zimbabwe is free."

Increased numbers of riot police and soldiers on Harare's streets were the only outward sign of the tumult gripping the country yesterday. But while the city centre remained tranquil, a new mood of militancy is driving Mr Mugabe's opponents. "Now I believe the revolution has begun," says 33-year-old Emerald Mhlanga (not his real name), an MDC youth organiser.

Mr Mhlanga, whose father fought for Mr Mugabe's guerrilla army against Ian Smith's white minority Rhodesian government in the 1970s, is part of a vanguard of a generation engaged in what they say is a new freedom struggle. A patchwork of scars and six missing front teeth are the visible consequences of his seven years of political activism.

Last Sunday, Mr Mhlanga sneaked past police roadblocks into the impoverished Harare township of Highfield to attend the rally held by a coalition of opposition leaders. He was with his friend Gift Tendare. "Gift was one of the strongest MDC cadres. I spoke to him a few minutes before and he said, 'Either I'm going to be shot, or the police officers are going to do something.'"

Violence quickly flared, and as the crowds responded to tear gas and water cannons with a barrage of stones, Mr Tendare was shot dead in the chest. His body lay on the road for more than an hour, say witnesses. At his funeral wake two days later in the Harare suburb of Glenview, police engaged in running battles with youths, again opening fire and wounding two.

The ruling Zanu-PF has effectively fractured into three factions: Mr Mugabe's, Vice President Joice Mujuru's and that of the former intelligence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mrs Mujuru fought in the 1970s liberation war and is married to Solomon Mujuru, the country's former army chief, who now has vast business interests here. Mr Mugabe has apparently been playing the two successor camps off against one another.

Meanwhile the repression goes on. Last week the police stormed the offices of the powerful labour movement, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, and seized documents and videotapes. The ZCTU has called for a two-day national strike next month.