Tsvangirai urges supporters to ignore army intimidation

By Lance Guma
28 March 2008

With army and police trucks moving through suburbs in Harare and Bulawayo MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai has urged his supporters not to be intimidated by the manoeuvres. Speaking to Newsreel during a special election broadcast Tsvangirai said it had been a long and hard struggle for the opposition and now was not the time to give in to threats. Responding to statements earlier this month, from army, police and prison chiefs that they would never be loyal to an opposition led government, Tsvangirai cast doubt on their importance saying, ‘we are not soldiers but civilians.’ He questioned why Mugabe called for an election in the first place if he has to send security chiefs to issue threats meant to influence how the population votes.

Talking through his party’s plans for reshaping the country, Tsvangirai laid out his priority areas as unemployment, the HIV scourge, an equitable and fair land reform programme, proper funding of the education sector and a general rebuilding of the economy. He said people should ignore claims by Mugabe that he (Tsvangirai) wanted to give land back to the whites; ‘We spoke about land redistribution even before Mugabe, during my time in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions,’ Tsvangirai argued. He repeated his message that people are suffering in the country because of Mugabe and that this suffering will not end if Mugabe remains in power.

Commenting on his campaign so far the MDC leader said he managed to address rallies in areas that were previously no-go zones created by Zanu PF. His team campaigned in areas like Mudzi, Kotwa, Murehwa, Mahuwe, Nzwimbo and Bindura. ‘We are proud of our campaign and want to thank our supporters for backing us throughout,’ Tsvangirai said. He also admitted that compared to previous elections marred by violence, this year had presented a much better environment. ‘We would like to thank the police, who in some areas did a professional job,’ he said.