10 “This is total war,” said Mugabe at the close of his ZANU PF party congress in Victoria Falls. “We will have a central command centre. This is war, it is not a game. You are all soldiers of ZANU PF for the people. When we come to your province we must see you are ready. When the time comes to fire the bullet, the ballot, the trajectory of the gun must be true.” Mr Mugabe said that the authorities would be even more ruthless this time, at one time shouting “Death to the tea boy”, a reference to Mr Tsvangirai, who he accuses of being too accommodating to whites. “What we are now headed for is a real war, a revolutionary war. We have to move like a military machine and you must prepare your own unit to move forward. This is no longer a contest. This is a revolutionary war”. In 2002, at Cain Nkala’s burial at Heroes Acre, he blamed MDC for the killing and said the killing proved that the MDC was a party of violence and urged party supporters to exact vengeance from the opposition party. Mugabe’s rhetoric was followed by a series of violent mob attacks on the MDC, the burning of offices and assaults and abductions of hundreds of members in a wave of terror shortly before presidential elections in 2002. The MDC members arrested for this killing were all later acquitted. Speaking at a rally in Nyamandlovu, Matabeleland on 13 July 2003, he said: “Let the MDC and its leaders be warned that those who play with fire will not only be burnt, but consumed by that fire.” Speaking about the MDC’s comments on the elections, he said: “Shut your dirty mouths. We do not want to hear that (that elections would not be free and fair) from you. You are not our judges. You are not our keepers. Leave us alone. The MDC is a murderous party. They are murderers right from Tsvangirai to the lowest member in the party.” (Source: The Herald, 28 February 2002.) Speaking at a party held in April 2002 to celebrate his election victory, he said: “This was a difficult contest (March 2002 Presidential elections) as [Ignatius] Chombo has said. It was the Whites who made the contest difficult. The Blairs. I am sure you saw how united the Boers were in what they saw as a do and die situation for them. We are the government and they can do nothing. Why are they refusing to accept the will of the people? The people elected ZANU PF to continue ruling and Mugabe to continue as president. And they want to be rebellious? Rebelling to cause chaos in the country? Do you think that’s what we want?) This is a post election period and no nonsense will be tolerated. Those who want to rebel, to become lawless we will deal with them firmly. We will make them run if they have not been made to run before. Do they think we will keep pleading with them. That’s gone. It’s finished. We are in a new phase; a new chapter and they will be a firm government, very firm! Their words condemn them: The language of violence, intolerance and despotism in Zimbabwe.