Zimbabwe’s opposition party today publicly accused the army of plotting to assassinate opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai using snipers.

The leader of the Movement for Democratic Change would have been gunned down soon after he returned home to Zimbabwe, said Tendai Biti, the Secretary-General of the MDC, at a press conference in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

“The assassination plot involves snipers,” said Mr Biti, confirming rumours first reported in The Sunday Times yesterday, and adding details.

“It is the military, the JOC (the army's Joint Operational Command) that has been running the country. I cannot speak (more) of that because it would put a lot of lives at risk.”

Mr Biti said that 18 snipers were involved in the alleged plot drawn up by the JOC, which he said had been running Zimbabwe since President Mugabe lost parliamentary and presidential elections to his rival Mr Tsvangirai on March 29.

The opposition said that it had received details of the alleged plot on Saturday as Mr Tsvangirai was on his way to the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, to fulfill his commitment to return home and fight run-off elections.

Mr Biti said today that Mr Tsvangirai still planned to return to Zimbabwe to contest the June 27 presidential run-off, but only once security measures were in place to protect him against assassination.

Not contesting the run-off was not an option as it would hand Mr Mugabe victory, he said.

The MDC claims that Mr Tsvangirai won the elections outright in the first round, but official results and those compiled by independent monitors suggest that he did not win the 50 per cent plus one vote needed to avoid a run-off.

Mr Biti criticised the run-off, saying that it legitimised Mr Mugabe’s “theft" of the election, and would not resolve Zimbabwe’s crisis.

It still was not too late to negotiate a “unity government of national healing”, he said.

“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 on June 27,” Mr Biti said.

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