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Opponents of Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe have vowed to drive him from office, saying the state was already at "war" with its own people.
Arthur Mutambara, the leader of one of the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change, yesterday delivered the strongest call for action yet against the increasingly violent regime.
The Oxford-educated professor was among those detained and beaten by police at a peaceful prayer meeting last Sunday.
"I can assure Robert Mugabe that this is the end game. We are going to do it by democratic means, by being beaten up and by being arrested - but we are going to do it," he said.
"We are in the final stage of the final push. We are not going to allow a dictator who is sitting on us to determine the means of confrontation against him. We are not asking his approval to be free. I hope Robert Mugabe, a sick and old man, you are listening. We mean business," Mr Mutambara said.
Mr Mutambara also signalled a truce in the factional divide that has hit the opposition.
"Our core business is to drive Mugabe out of town. There is no going back in working together against Robert Mugabe and his surrogates," he told supporters in Harare.
Morgan Tsvangirai, who heads the main MDC faction, was released from hospital yesterday after treatment for serious head wounds inflicted by police. The assault on the opposition leader provoked an outraged response worldwide and appears to have reunited a fractured opposition.
However, the chorus of disapproval has not been heard in neighbouring South Africa, where Nobel laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu yesterday strongly rebuked African leaders for their failure to rein-in Robert Mugabe.
"We Africans should hang our heads in shame," said Tutu of the largely lukewarm response from African leaders, who have given Mugabe a lifeline despite his escalating human rights abuses.
Tutu asked in a statement: "How can what is happening in Zimbabwe elicit hardly a word of concern let alone condemnation from us leaders of Africa?"
Tutu seemed to have been particularly angered by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has not commented on this week's turmoil in Zimbabwe which saw opposition leaders being beaten by police.
But an unrepentant Mugabe has already warned his critics to "go hang" and accused the West of sponsoring the MDC to achieve a regime change. After Ghanaian President John Kufuor described the Zimbabwe situation as "embarrassing" to Africa , Mozambique one of Mugabe's staunchest allies said Mugabe should ensure an open society to allow Zimbabweans to sit down and discuss differences.
- INDEPENDENT
