Saying "no" to autocracy in Zimbabwe

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has rejected calls for a national unity government in Zimbabwe and vowed to continue his presidential campaign until a June 27 runoff election. Tsvangirai, who already has been arrested twice this month for trying to put on campaign rallies, told a news conference in Harare that his party would win despite government-backed violence against his supporters. The Reuters international news service said Tsvangirai told the media that Zimbabwe has suffered a de facto coup and was being run by the military. More than 60 backers of his Movement for Democratic Change have been killed since the first round of voting in March, Tsvangirai said. The news conference was called after former finance minister Simba Makoni, a former backer of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, said the runoff balloting should be called off because it was impossible to hold a free and fair vote. But Tsvangirai said the runoff election process could not be changed once it was underway. "As far as I am concerned I can stay home from now on until the election, Mugabe will lose," Tsvangirai said. "It's just a formality to go and campaign -- the people have already decided." The United States, which along with the European Union has called for international monitoring of the runoff, said it was consulting its allies for ways to ensure the election was fair. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch also said intimidation and murder by Mugabe's supporters had made normal campaigning impossible.