Zimbabwe

As dozens of riot police patrolled the capital Friday, President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party announced that it would contest the election results for 16 parliamentary seats, enough to overturn a landmark opposition victory. The party's politburo also endorsed Mugabe to fight opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in a runoff for the presidency.

Militant war veterans allied with Zimbabwe's ruler threatened to evict white farmers Sunday, and about a dozen opposition activists were beaten and arrested by police over the weekend. The attacks raised fears that President Robert Mugabe's government was launching a violent campaign to assure his victory in an expected presidential runoff election. Eighteen farmers were threatened and several were forced to flee their properties as they were besieged by chanting, drum-beating mobs.

The first to go was the English teacher. Six months later, the commerce teacher followed. The next year, 2005, the trickle turned into an exodus. By 2007, the departures from Mufakose 3 High School were like bricks in a collapsing building: math, science, accounting and many other teachers, all leaving their careers behind to work as cleaners, shop assistants, laborers in other countries. Zimbabwe's education system, once the best in Africa, is being demolished teacher by teacher.

The opposition party said Thursday that it would not participate in a presidential runoff, and spokesmen for its candidate and President Robert Mugabe said both would attend an emergency summit of southern African leaders this weekend.

Police banned political rallies Friday as the crisis deepened over Zimbabwe's unresolved presidential election. A senior police official warned that anyone who defied the order would be "dealt with severely." The opposition said it was considering whether to defy the ban and call a general strike. "We cannot accept a declaration of a police state," said Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe skipped a regional summit Saturday addressing the deepening crisis over the country's contentious presidential election, giving southern African leaders little chance to step up the pressure on him. The summit reflected Mugabe's growing isolation, as well as cracks in the usually uniform solidarity with him exhibited by the Southern African Development Community.

President Robert Mugabe devoted his first major speech since the unresolved presidential election three weeks ago to denouncing whites and former colonial ruler Britain, blaming them for the country's political and economic troubles. "There are black people who are putting prices up, but they are being used by the whites," Mugabe said. Whites "want the people to starve so they think the government is wrong and they should remove it," said Mugabe, who has ruled since independence in 1980.

Opposition supporters say they have been beaten by agents of the Zimbabwean military in recent weeks and that some activists have been abducted and taken to paramilitary bush camps for interrogation. A leader of the Movement for Democratic Change said Sunday that 10 activists had been killed since the national elections March 29, and that scores had disappeared.

Zimbabwe's security crackdown intensified Friday as riot police raided the opposition movement's headquarters in the capital city of Harare, arresting hundreds of people, including many rural activists and their families who had fled recent violence in their home districts. Opposition officials said more than 200 armed riot police raided the building and arrested about 300 people. Police said they had a warrant to search for "suspicious individuals."

The two factions of Zimbabwe's divided opposition Movement for Democratic Change have reached a deal to cooperate in parliament and claimed Monday that some ruling party lawmakers had defected, steps that give them a solid parliamentary majority. The MDC factions together control 109 seats in the 210-member parliament following March 29 elections. An independent lawmaker, Jonathon Moyo, said Monday that he also might side with the opposition in the new parliament.