Liberation hero Mugabe now fights for survival

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - Once hailed as a liberation hero and democratic champion, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe goes into Saturday's elections branded by opponents as a dictator who has ruined a once prosperous country.

But the 84-year-old veteran of the fight against white minority rule is defiant, accusing the very Western countries that criticize his leadership of being responsible for Zimbabwe's woes.

Mugabe, seeking another five-year term as president, is the only leader many of Zimbabwe's 13 million people have known.

After 28 years in power, with the economy suffering the highest inflation rate in the world at over 100,000 percent and with millions of Zimbabweans fleeing abroad to escape poverty, Mugabe faces his biggest challenge since taking office in 1980.

His main opponents are long time rival Morgan Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni, a former ally whose decision to run as an independent has shown up cracks in his ruling ZANU-PF party.

The opposition accuses Mugabe of planning to rig the vote and abusing his position in charge of the state apparatus. To bolster his campaign, he has handed out food and farm supplies and threatened to force businesses to cut prices.

"Mugabe is both a player and a referee in this game and I just see don't see how anyone sees him losing a game in which he makes the rules and holds the whistle," says Lovemore Madhuku of political pressure group National Constitutional Assembly.

THINKING MAN'S GUERRILLA

Mugabe was known in liberal international circles in the 1970s as the thinking man's guerrilla. He was jailed for 10 years in 1964 for opposing white minority rule in then-Rhodesia.

After a seven-year war ended in a negotiated settlement with Britain and white leader Ian Smith, Mugabe was elected as the first black prime minister. He offered forgiveness and reconciliation and was hailed in the West.

He expanded schooling for blacks and presided over a booming economy. After two terms as prime minister, he rewrote the constitution and won election as president in 1990.

The change was possible after he crushed a five-year revolt in Matabeleland province, where the discovery of mass graves provoked an international outcry over suspected atrocities.

His international isolation accelerated following a land reform program launched in 2000 when Mugabe encouraged war veterans to seize white-owned commercial farms that earned significant foreign exchange for Zimbabwe.

Critics say the land invasions only benefited his inner circle and ruined the economy. He blamed Western sanctions, meant to target him and his close allies, for the decline.

Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth group of mostly former British colonies after Mugabe's re-election to a third six-year term in March 2002 amid charges of poll fraud. Mugabe withdrew from the group in December 2003.