Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe says "only God" can remove him from office, as Mugabe promises to "fight" to retain power ...
UN chief sending envoy to Zimbabwe aheadof presidential runoff ...
Zimbabwe to face presidential run-off vote ...
Senegal FM: Mugabe will accept run-off result ... the opposition MDC considers pulling out from a presidential run-off vote.

"The MDC will never be allowed to rule this country," Mr Mugabe said at a rally in the city of Bulawayo.

The MDC will announce on Monday whether it will contest the 27 June poll, a party source has told the BBC.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is said to be under pressure to pull out in view of escalating pre-poll violence.

The MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) says about 70 of its supporters have been killed and 25,000 forced from their homes in a state-sponsored campaign of violence since the first round of the presidential elections in March.

New footage emerged on Friday, shot by US embassy staff, showing ruling party militias armed with sticks apparently hunting for MDC supporters in a township in the capital, Harare.

Zimbabwe's immediate neighbours have voiced increasing concern over the validity of the run-off vote.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, one of Mr Mugabe's closest allies, has urged him to stop the violence.

Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe, head of an election monitoring team, told the BBC earlier this week that violence appeared to be "escalating throughout Zimbabwe".

In Brussels, the European Union has drafted a summit statement saying it is ready to take unspecified "additional measures against those responsible for violence".

The EU already has an arms embargo against Zimbabwe and has placed travel bans on - and frozen the assets of - President Mugabe and other senior government and ruling Zanu-PF party officials.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was also heavily critical of Zimbabwe's veteran leader:

"Mugabe's increasingly desperate and isolated regime has unleashed still more violence. This is a blatant attempt to intimidate and to steal the election," he said.

Mr Mugabe - who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 - blames Western sanctions for causing the country's economic freefall.

'Charade'

If the MDC does pull out, it will be handing victory to Mr Mugabe, making it a tricky decision to take, says the BBC's Caroline Hawley in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The MDC suffered at least five violent deaths of activists or their family members this week and its secretary general, Tendai Biti, was charged with treason and subversion.

"Differences of opinion" have emerged among the party's senior officials over its next move, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told the BBC after the leadership met in Harare on Friday.

The party, he said, needed to assess the situation in the country but if conditions did not change, the vote would be a "charade".

"We are assessing the situation as some areas are inaccessible," he added.

"People are being abducted at night. Our grass-roots activists are being subjected to terror. Some of them are staying in the bushes and mountains to avoid Zanu-PF militias.

"Unless there's a change in conditions on the ground, the election will be a charade."

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(BBC)

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