HARARE, Zimbabwe — President Robert Mugabe on Friday said his supporters are ready to fight if the opposition wins an upcoming presidential runoff election, hardening the rhetoric of a campaign that already has seen widespread violence against government opponents.
“I’m even prepared to join the fight,” the 84-year-old Mugabe told a conference of his party’s youth wing.
Mugabe said the veterans of the war of independence in 1980 had approached him after the first round of voting in March and threatened to take up arms again if opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai wins the June 27 runoff.
Tsvangirai finished first in a field of four in the first round but failed to win the majority needed to avoid a runoff.
“We can’t allow the British to dominate us through their puppets,” said Mugabe, returning to a campaign theme of portraying Tsvangirai as a pawn of Western powers, a charge the opposition denies. “A vote for the (opposition) is a vote for the British to have once again not just a foothold but real power.”
A High Court judge, meanwhile, ordered police to bring No. 2 opposition leader Tendai Biti to court Saturday and explain why he should not be immediately released, said opposition lawyer Selby Hwacha.
Biti was arrested Thursday after returning to Zimbabwe from neighboring South Africa. Police have said he faces a charge of treason, which can carry the death penalty.
Tsvangirai, speaking on the campaign trail Friday, called the charge Biti faces “frivolous.”
“Tendai has not committed any crime; he has not committed any offense to warrant the arrest,” the candidate said.
