Tsvangirai says Mugabe preparing violence

By Muchena Zigomo

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition accused President Robert Mugabe on Saturday of deploying loyal forces and liberation war veterans for a "war on the people" to reverse the result of last weekend's election.

"Militants are being rehabilitated," Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai told a press conference, adding that the central bank was printing money "for the finance of violence" ahead of a presidential runoff vote.

The MDC says it won the March 29 presidential election, though no official results have been released.

Official results do show the MDC won a parallel vote in which Mugabe's ZANU-PF lost control of parliament for the first time -- the biggest defeat of the veteran leader's 28-year rule.

ZANU-PF and independent projections show Tsvangirai being forced into a presidential runoff after failing to win an absolute majority.

"The circumstances have changed, ZANU-PF has threatened, has deployed militias, has deployed war veterans," Tsvangirai said, adding Mugabe was "preparing a war on the people".

"It is unfair ... for President Mugabe to even hint at a runoff. Violence will be the new weapon to reverse the people's will. We won this election without the need for a runoff," said Tsvangirai, who called Mugabe a lame duck president and demanded that he concede.

Later on Saturday state-owned radio reported that a group of pro-Mugabe war veterans had vowed to occupy all white-owned farms in Masvingo Province amid reports white farmers were returning to land seized by the government.