'Stop the Hemmorhage'.(government of Robert Mugabe)(Brief Article)(Interview)

After wrenching independence from Britain 22 years ago, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe was a national hero. But in the last decade, as living standards have plummeted and his benign autocracy has turned to tyranny, many Zimbabweans have come to loathe him. Observers say he has stacked the judiciary with his lackeys, enriched the leaders of his political party (the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, or ZANU-PF) and encouraged a murderous rampage against white farmers and black pro-democracy activists. Now Morgan Tsvangirai, a former labor leader and head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is aiming to unseat him. Amid an escalating government campaign of harassment and draconian press laws in the run-up to presidential elections next month, NEWSWEEK's Jan Raath spoke with Tsvangirai at his Harare office. Excerpts:

RAATH: Western opinion is now strongly against Mugabe. Do you think it worries him?

TSVANGIRAI: As long as it was an isolated Western opinion, obviously he would disregard it as imperialism, and he would get away with it. But now it's not just Western opinion, it's international opinion--across race, across region, everyone has condemned him, even African heads of state.

Isn't Mugabe likely to drive on regardless?

Mugabe is being defiant to national and international pressure, but I think he has overstepped the line. He has a choice. If he wins the election, the outcome is, of course, illegitimate. He knows the consequences of isolation, of sanctions. This country is in dire economic difficulties, and he needs the outside more than the outside needs him. And he knows that.

If you win, what will be your immediate priorities?

The first is law and order. The lawlessness that has been abetted and supported by the government has been detrimental to confidence in the country. You have to deal with fundamental economic equations, stop the decline, stop the hemorrhage. There are measures in our recovery plan to ensure that. The third issue is that the chaos in the agricultural sector, in [Mugabe's] land-reform plan, has to be put right in a manner that is equitable, that gives support to the farmers, that ensures agricultural production is put on a sustainable footing again.