Posted on 05/31/2008 8:31:29 AM PDT by Nextrush
Zimbabwe's army chief has told soliders they must leave the military if they do not vote for incumbent President Robert Mugabe in next month's run-off poll.
Chief-of-staff Maj Gen Martin Chedondo said soldiers had signed up to protect Mr. Mugabe's principles of defending the revolution, state media reported.
"If you have any other thoughts, then you should remove that uniform," he said.
Gen Chedondo was speaking at a target-shooting competition outside Harare, the Herald newspaper reported.
Zimbabwe's generals have in the past vowed never to support the main opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, if he is elected in the 27 June run-off election.
'Imperialist influence'
"Soliders are not apolitical; only mercenaries are apolitical," said the general. "We should therfore stand behind our commander-in-chief."
He said the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was being supported by Britain and its Western allies in a bid to regain "imperialist" influence in Zimbabwe.
Earlier, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa accused the intelligence services of the UK and the US of acting as a sinister third force to undermine the ruling party's revolution.
He said an opposition victory in the run-off vote would reverse the gains of the revolution and destabilise the country.
Conflict veterans
Gen Chedondo said troops were being deployed across the nation to help police control poltical violence before the presidential election second round.
The army denies reports by human rights groups that soldiers have been involved in instigating attacks on government opponents since the first round of voting on 29 March, which saw no overall winner emerge.
The MDC says more than 50 of its members have been killed and thousands more forced to flee their homes since the first round.
Most of Zimbabwe's generals are veterans of the conflict that led to independence from Britain in 1980.
Their statements read like they came from the Kremlin in the good old days, not to mention North Korea today.
NK provides military advisors and support to the Mugabe regieme.
I didn't realize that starvation, 80 perecent unemployment and 1,000 percent inflation were "gains of the revolution."
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Hope they take their rifles and crew served weapons with them.
Paging Jimmy Carter...your Commie buddy is calling.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/746zsgtg.asp
Precisely what should happen. Be there an upper level military commander with a shred of decency among them, he would marshal his troops and divorce them from the Mugabe regime. That would be the first step in the right direction.
It’s amazing: A few years ago, the moonbatblogs were full of praise for thug Mugabe, esp. when he spoke out against the “evil” GWB and US. Just spent 15 minutes trying to find some of those posts. Gone from every left wing site I waded through. Gone from yahoo and google. Just plain gone. Heck, it’s even hard to find anything about Carter signing off on Mugabe’s last election.
Information control, people. The left has it in spades, rewriting history to hide their gross errors and pimp their insane ideology.
I did find this at littlegreenfootballs: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/17903_UN_Delegates_Cheer_Mugabe_Tirade Kudos to the Grand Lizard (Charles).
Um, 1000% inflation is wrong. The actual number is 100,000%. Really: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7255588.stm Socialism works! /sarc
Ok. Now is the time we need to hear from Jimmy Carter. Some reporters need to hound him as per this votew for mugabe or leave the army (”freedom of election” stance).
Must back Mugabe or quit eating!
Fixed it.
A penny must be worth a million Zimbabwe dollars easy by now.
Here’s another “election” for our best friend, Jimmah Carter to go and “certify”.
Carter and the leader who is no longer wanted in that country have alot in common.
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