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Mugabe's mobs put diplomats on white hit list

By David Blair in Harare and Christina Lamb

ROBERT MUGABE'S terror mobs are drawing up secret plans to assassinate Western diplomats as part of a drive to force all whites out of Zimbabwe, according to the country's opposition leaders.

David Coltart, a spokesman on legal affairs for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said: "Everyone, including Western governments, is making a serious miscalculation. Each time a hospital or charity is attacked they say it can't get any worse. They just don't appreciate how far Mugabe and his Zanu-PF are prepared to go."

Many whites are terrified to return to work tomorrow after weeks of anarchy in which mobs loyal to Mr Mugabe have rampaged through Harare, attacking 200 white-owned businesses, destroying equipment, threatening the lives of employees and demanding money.

In the past two weeks the target has widened to charities, hospitals, dentists and the British Council. Anything with the faintest link to a white person is in peril; one orphanage has been "invaded" three times.

MDC members have been meeting officials in Washington and London, desperately warning them that this could be just the start. "They need to realise that Mugabe will do anything and that's a horrifying prospect," said Mr Coltart. "I'm sure he'll assassinate diplomats if he needs to get the embassies out."

Last week's attacks on the British Council and the manhandling of the Canadian High Commissioner were believed to be just the prelude to attacks on Western diplomats to force them to close embassies before presidential elections that must be held by next April. Hundreds of businessmen have been forced to take refuge abroad and most white families have made emergency escape plans.

While Mr Mugabe will not emulate Idi Amin's mass expulsion of Ugandan Asians in 1972, he aims to break the white community's resolve by creating a climate of fear. The President is convinced that the 60,000 remaining whites created the opposition MDC as a front for the restoration of colonial rule.

The shock troops of his regime, who claim to be veterans of the war against white rule, are turning the terror tactics used against white farmers on their urban counterparts. Joseph Chinotimba and Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi, the prime movers behind the violent occupation of white-owned farms last year, are leading the campaign in Harare.

During his most recent public address, at the funeral of a cabinet minister a fortnight ago, Mr Mugabe referred to the new offensive as the "Third Chimurenga" - a phrase filled with historical resonance. "Chimurenga", meaning revolution, first occurred in 1896, when blacks rose in revolt against white rule; the second instance was the guerrilla war of the 1970s against Ian Smith's Rhodesian regime.

Whites fear that if a Chimurenga were to be waged against them all restraint would be abandoned. They believe that the trail of economic destruction has a political purpose. Clive Puzey, the chairman of the Petrol Retailers' Association, said: "I do think they are prepared to force the collapse of the entire economy. That will mean white people leaving the country and their businesses being run by indigenous people. That is the whole point of this campaign."

Many companies have already been forced out of business. The Ruenya Granite Mine closed last month, placing 140 jobs and £12 million of annual export earnings at risk. Typically, the mine had been blockaded by the gangs, who used the sacking of eight workers as an excuse for intervention. Directors received a letter ordering them to sack MDC supporters and employ only Zanu-PF workers, or else "go back to Britain".

Among the whites to leave is Marco Garizio, the managing director of Zimbabwe Spring Steel, who fled after three visits from the gangs. Mr Garizio was ordered to pay £75,000 to 39 workers sacked last year. He evacuated his family after the first visit and has no doubt about the goal of the campaign. Mr Garizio said: "Mugabe is convinced that the MDC would not exist without the whites. He believes that if you get rid of the whites, you get rid of the opposition."

International condemnation has been restricted so far to the suspension of aid, but the MDC is lobbying to get targeted sanctions such as travel bans imposed on the administration, as they were on Nigeria's generals. Mr Coltart said: "There's no point imposing general sanctions as Mugabe doesn't care about the economy. But many of his ministers have children at school in America or Britain and would be very upset if they could no longer travel there."

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2001