Zimbabwe armed rebel group 'thousands strong'

The existence of a new Zimbabwean underground movement prepared to adopt violent tactics to remove the president, Robert Mugabe, was claimed yesterday by the British human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.

He said the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement had a network of cells throughout the country and thousands of members, primarily soldiers, police and members of the security services disillusioned with Mugabe. They had access to arms dumps and were serving notice on Mugabe to resign or face removal by "judicious use of appropriate force".

At a cinema at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Tatchell showed an 18-minute video which he said had been smuggled out of the country, showing two men in balaclavas and camouflage. He identified one of them as the commander of the movement.

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