Zimbabwe military, not Mugabe, running country, NGO charges

Jul 10, 2008, 12:37 GMT

Johannesburg - The Zimbabwean military, and not President Robert Mugabe, is now running the troubled country, the South Africa-based Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum (ZSF) said Thursday.

ZSF spokesman Sipho Theys told a news conference in Johannesburg that a military junta had taken over the Zimbabwe and militias were controlling parts of the country.

'Rural bases of soldiers are living off rural communities and humanitarian aid,' the South Africa Press Association (Sapa) quoted Theys as saying.

Mugabe was reelected unopposed in a June 27 one-candidate presidential run-off election which African observers said was 'not free, fair or credible.' He had lost the first round of elections on March 27 to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai, who maintains he had won the March 27 elections by enough votes to avoid a second poll, pulled out of the run-off days before it was due to take place, citing militia attacks on, and intimidation of, his supporters.

The African Union, in a summit at the beginning of the month, recommended that Mugabe and Tsvangirai enter into talks on forming a national unity government.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, meanwhile, said Thursday that informal curfews have been put in place in Zimbabwe.

'It feels like the election period...Police are warning people to be indoors by 7 pm, or they would be at risk for their own lives,' spokesman McDonald Lewanika, said, adding that the humanitarian crisis in the country had also escalated.