Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is preparing to declare a state of emergency to try to keep control of the country as pressure mounts against him internally and externally.
Authoritative sources said Mugabe's cabinet had agreed in principle at a meeting this week to impose a state of emergency on Zimbabwe, if current measures put in place did not "bring the country to order".
A state of emergency would result in a curfew, with all opposition activities banned and the movements of people being severely restricted.
Zimbabwe last saw the imposition of states of emergency in the early 1980s, when Mugabe battled to contain a rebellion by bands of dissidents in southern Zimbabwe. The subsequent crackdown resulted in the slaying of more than 20 000 innocent civilians.
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The brutal assaults by Mugabe's police on opposition leaders this week have backfired on him on all fronts, increasing pressure on him to resign. Internally, they united the two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The assaults also provoked new levels of retaliatory violence as opponents firebombed a police station, seriously injuring two police officers.
Externally, the assaults provoked a rising chorus of condemnation from around the world and threats of more sanctions. They even prompted southern African regional governments - which have largely done nothing about Zimbabwe so far - to consider taking action.
The Tanzanian government announced this week that Tanzania, Namibia and Lesotho, the three governments currently responsible for regional security in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), would meet on March 26 and 27 in Dar es Salaam to discuss the crisis.
This came a day after Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, acting in his capacity as head of the SADC's regional security organ, met Mugabe in Harare to discuss the assaults on opposition leaders.
Although Mugabe stood alongside Kikwete at a joint press conference and angrily vowed that the critics of his government's actions could "go hang", Kikwete later hailed the meeting as a "great success", suggesting he had persuaded Mugabe to accept SADC mediation.
The SADC initiative followed unusual expressions of concern - albeit muted - from several regional governments, including Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa.
Alcinda Abreu, the foreign minister of Mozambique, one of Mugabe's staunchest allies, urged him to ensure "an opening" so that Zimbabweans "may discuss their differences".
Southern African leaders are concerned, among other things, about the spillover from the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, where inflation stands at 1 730 percent and unemployment at 80 percent.
After the release from hospital of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main MDC faction who was treated for head injuries inflicted by police last Sunday, said he believed democratic change was in sight. He said he had endured an "orgy of beatings" in custody, adding: "They brutalised my flesh. But they will never break my spirit. I will soldier on until Zimbabwe is free."
Arthur Mutambara, the leader of the rival MDC faction, told his supporters to work with Tsvangirai's group, to intensify a campaign of protests and civil disobedience, "to drive Mugabe out of town".
"I can assure Robert Mugabe that this is the endgame. We are going to do it by democratic means, by being beaten up and by being arrested - but we are going to do it."
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu strongly rebuked African leaders for their failure to rein in or even condemn Mugabe.
"We Africans should hang our heads in shame," he said on Saturday of the lukewarm response from African leaders. "How can what is happening in Zimbabwe elicit hardly a word of concern, let alone condemnation from us leaders of Africa?"
Alexander Downer, the Australian foreign minister, announced this week that his country was drawing up contingency plans to evacuate its nationals if the crisis spun out of control.
Other governments with large expatriate communities in Zimbabwe have also drawn up similar plans, but were reluctant to discuss them publicly.
Lord Triesman, Britain's Africa minister, urged African leaders, including President Thabo Mbeki, to put more pressure on the Mugabe regime. But Downing Street failed to say if Prime Minister Tony Blair had spoken to Mbeki personally.
Triesman said a European Union travel ban against Mugabe and his cronies would be extended to the police chiefs responsible for the arrests and beatings of Tsvangirai and fellow activists. - Foreign Service
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