Zimbabwe's Mugabe says war vets ready to fight

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said on Friday liberation war veterans would take up arms if he loses a June 27 presidential run-off vote.

Mugabe told youth members of his ruling ZANU-PF party in Harare that the veterans had told him they would launch a new bush war if the election was won by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, whom he accuses of being a puppet of the West.

"They said if this country goes back into white hands just because we have used a pen (to vote), 'we will return to the bush to fight,'" Mugabe said, ratcheting up the pressure to extend his 28-year-presidency.

Tsvangirai, rights groups and Western powers accuse Mugabe of unleashing a brutal campaign, including using police to harass opponents, to win the run-off. Mugabe and the ZANU-PF lost presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29.

A second ballot, however, is required because Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change leader, fell short of the majority needed to win the presidency outright. He says 66 of his followers have been killed since the March poll.

Zimbabwe's High Court on Friday ordered police to bring MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti to court on Saturday and justify why he had been arrested at Harare's airport on Thursday. Biti faces a treason charge that could carry a death sentence.

"The order we got is for him to be brought to court and for the police to show cause why they are holding him," defense attorney Lewis Uriri said. He said Biti was expected to appear in court at 0800 GMT (4 a.m. EDT) on Saturday.

Former guerrilla commander Mugabe, president since independence from Britain in 1980, blames the MDC for the violence that has caused widespread international concern.