"We need to avoid a scenario like Kenya," said Salomao, referring to the rioting and killing that engulfed that east African nation after its recent elections. Salomao said he would fly to Harare today.
The rising sense of foreboding grows out of ZANU-PF's past use of violence for political ends. In 2000, after the defeat of a referendum that would have given Mugabe greater powers, he blamed white farmers. In the years since, he has sanctioned the seizure of thousands of their farms, often by force. He said he did so to right the injustices of the colonial era, which concentrated farmland in the hands of whites, but much of the confiscated land was doled out as patronage to ZANU-PF's governing elite.
In 2005, Mugabe's government demolished the homes of hundreds of thousands of poor people in urban neighborhoods that were strongholds of the political opposition. And last year, police rounded up dozens of opposition activists, including the MDC's current presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, beating and arresting them.
