Rigged voting, Opposition Candidate Assaults and Arrests

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwe's main opposition party accused the government of President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday of mounting a campaign of violence, torture and intimidation ahead of rural elections this month.

More than 20 opposition candidates were assaulted during recent campaigning for the Sept. 28-29 poll, said Paul Themba-Nyati, the Movement for Democratic Change's elections director.

At least 70 candidates were arrested on trumped up charges and 46 withdrew from the race in two districts because they feared for their safety and that of their families, he said.

Zimbabwe has been seized by more than two years of political and economic turmoil, widely blamed on Mugabe's increasingly unpopular ruling party. More than half Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people face severe food shortages, blamed on drought and the government's program to seize white-owned farm for redistribution to poor blacks.

In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair called on the international community must do more to save Zimbabwe from financial ruin and derided Mugabe's claims that Britain was responsible for the African state's poverty.

"Zimbabwe is potentially one of the richest grain nations in the world and yet because of the way he (Mugabe) has ruined the country, it is having to import grain for its people," Blair said. "It's a terrible, terrible tragedy."

At the World Summit in Johannesburg on Monday, Mugabe blamed Britain and other rich countries for the poverty and despair in his country.

He also defended his seizure of white-owned farms, saying the program pitted the majority against an "obdurate" racial minority which he alleged was "supported and manipulated" by Blair.

"We have not asked for any inch of Europe," said Mugabe. "So, Blair keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a speech Aug. 27, urged Zimbabwe to change its land policies to help stave off famine. Annan also called on Zimbabwe to observe its own laws and compensate displaced farmers.

Mugabe claims the seizures are necessary to correct lingering colonial injustices and to empower thousands of poor, black, landless Zimbabweans.

He said the only demand is that it be done through a United Nations program "to make sure the money goes to the poor people who need it, not into the pockets of him and his henchmen and the other people running the show."

In the recent violence in Zimbabwe, scores of opposition officials and supporters were driven from their homes and prevented open campaigning for the 1,397 local council posts, Themba-Nyati said.

"Rural elections should be an affirmation of democratic rights. This is not the case in Zimbabwe," he said.

Mugabe's ruling party narrowly won parliament elections in 20000, surviving the biggest threat to its hold on power since independence in 1980. Mugabe narrowly won a disputed presidential poll this year that independent observers said was swayed by violence, intimation and vote rigging.

Mugabe claims the seizures are necessary to correct lingering colonial injustices and to empower thousands of poor, black, landless Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe Rips Rich Nations - while stuffing his stomach and pockets

The landless are being given LEASES, I guess Mugabe will hold the deeds. Zimbabwe -- 12 Mugabes to get white farms

Demonstrators carry Anti-Mugabe banners outside the summit conference center, September 2, 2002 in Johannesburg. Zimbabwe, a former British colony, has been gripped by a deepening political and economic crisis since pro-government militias invaded white-owned farms in early 2000 in support of President Robert Mugabe's campaign to redistribute their land to landless blacks. Mugabe says the actions are a necessary redress of colonial injustices. Britain says Mugabe is pushing a fertile country to the brink of famine while enriching his cronies. REUTERS/Juda Ngwenya

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe (R) shares a joke with his Minister of Foreign Affairs Stan Mudenge at the Earth summit, September 2, 2002. Mugabe is expected to justify his controversial land grab to other world leaders at the United Nationals World Summit for Sustainable Development, currently being held in the city. REUTERS/Howard Burditt

Zimbabwean small scale farmer Phineas Moyo (R) and his wife Sarah collect maize that has fallen from trucks, approximately 100 kilometres north of the border town of Beit Bridge September 2, 2002. Zimbabwe on Monday impounded a 30 tonne cargo of food aid at the South African border because the agency importing it had not obtained a permit to bring it into the country, an aid official said. Monday's shipment was the first of a proposed 10,000 tonne contribution to the country's relief operation for an estimated six million people facing extreme hunger. REUTERS/Paul Cadenhea

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