ZIMBABWE: President Robert Mugabe's government yesterday threatened to physically "eliminate" political opponents seeking to overthrow it unconstitutionally after the alleged discovery of an arms cache.
State security minister Didymus Mutasa issued the warning on ZTV a day after the state broadcaster reported that police had found weapons in the eastern city of Mutare and had made an arrest.
Investigators said that the suspect, Peter Hitschmann, claimed to have been working with former members of the Rhodesian forces now serving in Zimbabwe's military to obtain the arms and plan acts of sabotage, ZTV reported.
It was not possible to obtain independent verification of the ZTV report, which displayed the alleged arms cache during its Wednesday evening news bulletin. It included AK-47 rifles and machineguns.The station also reported that six people had been arrested, including Movement for Democratic Change members Giles Mutsekwa and Roy Bennett.
ZTV claimed that the group had stored arms in Mutare to harm government and ruling ZANU-PF officials attending Mugabe's 82nd birthday celebrations in the eastern border city two weeks ago.
In an interview with ZTV, Mutasa warned that government opponents might be eliminated. "They [ Zimbabweans] are absolutely secure. The only people who may not be secure, and may I repeat, are those people who are causing these problems, because we will not spare them. If it came to a position where we have to eliminate them physically . . . we will not hesitate to do that."
Mutasa suggested that the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was among opponents who had entertained thoughts of removing Mugabe by force. He warned that the government would deal sternly with them. "If the people, as I must repeat, like Tsvangirai do not believe that, they are living in cuckooland and we will not let them proceed along the disastrous way that they have shaped for themselves."