Zimbabwe Army Said to Plot Killing of Opposition Chief

Zimbabwe’s military has a plan to assassinate opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, according to Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change. An MDC official said today that the armed forces been ruling Zimbabwe since the March 29 election, and would have had snipers gun down Tsvangirai had he returned to the country Friday as planned, the Times of London reports.

Tsvangirai will still return to contest the June 27 run-off election, the executive promised, once security was sufficient to protect him. But he cast doubt the contest would solve anything. “The basic problem is that we have an old man, a geriatric, who is not prepared to give up power, and that situation isn’t going to change,” he said of president Robert Mugabe. (More Zimbabwe stories.)