Mugabe's iron fist - war veterans, green bombers

By Cris Chinaka

MASVINGO, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe is urging Zimbabweans to 'Vote For The Fist'.

His campaign posters -- portraits of Mugabe wearing an olive green military-type shirt and holding a clenched fist aloft -- reflect his hard-line politics, and remind voters of the crack troops who have helped keep him in power for 28 years.

Mugabe is again counting on his army of war veterans and ruling party youth brigades, known as "green bombers" because of the military-style clothes they wear, to crank up support in his rural power base ahead of the March 29 vote.

The veteran leader is facing his strongest challenge in nearly three decades because of defections by senior ruling ZANU-PF party officials and a deepening economic crisis.

The opposition charges that the "green bombers", war veterans and some members of the Zimbabwean army were behind violent campaigns that helped Mugabe's party retain power in elections in 2000 and 2002. Mugabe denies the allegations.

This week, Human Rights Watch said Mugabe's supporters, including police and central intelligence, had used violence in the run-up to this month's poll to intimidate opponents, undermining chances of a fair vote.

ZANU-PF denies its militant supporters are guilty of intimidation but Zimbabwean rights activists say they have documented years of systematic violence.

"We have heard some horror stories. In 2000 and 2002 ... we had people being dragged out of buses, after being identified as opposition activists, and getting assaulted with clubs and machetes," said an official with Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum.

"We had cases of people being stabbed by mobs at open markets, and ... youth brigades moving around in large groups, disrupting opposition rallies, singing war songs and sowing fear in townships and villages," said the official, who did not want to be named.

"Fortunately, it's not happening at the same level this time round. But the fear remains," he added.

Mugabe, an 84-year-old former guerrilla leader, is facing a fierce fight from ex-ally Simba Makoni and longtime rival Morgan Tsvangirai in his bid for another five-year term.

Both Makoni, a former finance minister, and Tsvangirai, who heads the main faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), say Mugabe has ruined Zimbabwe's economy.

Mugabe says the mounting problems Zimbabweans are battling, including food and fuel shortages and the highest inflation in the world, are a result of sanctions imposed by Western powers.

"They want to turn back this country into a British colony again, and I urge you to demonstrate to the world again that their chosen puppets have no support and will never rule this country," Mugabe said at a rally in southern Zimbabwe.

SENSE OF FEAR