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06/15/2008: "Mugabe: if I lose the poll, we will wage war"

A defiant President Robert Mugabe yesterday vowed he would 'go to war' if he lost the presidential run-off due to take place in less than two weeks.

Describing the opposition as 'traitors', he claimed Zimbabwe would never 'be lost' again. Speaking at the burial of a veteran of the independence war, Mugabe said he would never accept the Movement for Democratic Change taking over. 'It shall never happen ... as long as I am alive and those who fought for the country are alive,' he said. 'We are prepared to fight for our country and to go to war for it.'

[ This could mean a Rwanda style massacre. There are ethnic differences between Africans aggravating the conflict also - eg. the majority are Shona (about 70%) which is Mugabe's tribe and the next largest is the Ndebele at about 16%. Tensions between these two go back to the pre-colonial period. ]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/15/zimbabwe