Zimbabwe Opposition Leaders On The Run

Leading members of Zimbabwe's opposition are on the run or under attack, yet President Robert Mugabe was campaigning Tuesday, determined to hold a presidential runoff in which he will be the only candidate.

Mugabe has been defiant in the face of international condemnation. His plan to go ahead with the vote appeared to stem less from a desire to validate his rule than to humiliate Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been holed up in the Dutch Embassy in Harare since announcing Sunday that he would not compete in Friday's presidential runoff.

In a interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric from the Dutch embassy, Tsvangirai said he didn't believe Mugabe's claim that there was no threat against his life. "I've been treated like a common criminal and not as a leading contender in this campaign," said Tsvangirai. He added Mugabe "may be saying one thing for public consumption but certainly may act in another manner."

Mugabe, a vigorous 84, launched a rally Tuesday by kicking a soccer ball before thousands of cheering supporters.

Tsvangirai's party said Tuesday that the chairwoman of one of its provincial organizations was seriously injured by alleged Mugabe loyalists who also looted her home in a northern region that independent human rights groups say has seen some of the worst violence.

The party also said the rural home of its national organizing secretary was attacked early Tuesday by Mugabe loyalists in military uniform. The party said the official's 80-year-old father was beaten and two other relatives were shot in the legs.

Tsvangirai said the onslaught of state-sponsored violence against his party made the balloting impossible.

George Sibotshiwe, a spokesman for Tsvangirai, said the politician had received a tip that soldiers were on the way to his home Sunday, after he had announced he was pulling out of the runoff.

Sibotshiwe would not reveal the source of the tip, and said the soldiers' intentions were unclear.

But "the moment you have soldiers coming your way, you just run for your life," Sibotshiwe said. "The only way he can protect himself is to go to an embassy."

Sibotshiwe was speaking from Angola after fleeing Zimbabwe earlier this week. He saw armed men approaching a safe house where he had been staying in Zimbabwe, and fears arrest.

"I had a bit of a disaster," he said, adding other opposition officials were also in hiding, among them Tsvangirai's campaign manager. Officials were no longer working out of the party's headquarters in Harare for fear of arrest, Sibotshiwe said.

Tsvangirai's second in command, Tendai Biti, is jailed in Zimbabwe on treason charges, which can carry the death penalty.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said Monday that police had taken 39 people from the opposition headquarters as part of an investigation into political violence. Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa had said most of the people taken away were women and children seeking refuge after fleeing state-sponsored political violence.

Tsvangirai told the Dutch national broadcaster NOS radio Tuesday that the Dutch ambassador had spoken to the Zimbabwean government and received assurances there was no threat. Tsvangirai said he might leave the embassy Tuesday or Wednesday.

But the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, said Tsvangirai should be wary of government assurances.

"Right now, I don't have a lot of faith in anything this government says," McGee told reporters in a conference call. The diplomat said violence against the opposition was escalating as election day approached.

"There's really nothing that we can do in the international community to stop these elections," McGee said.

McGee said the embassy expected Mugabe militants to force voters to go to the polls Friday, and to attack anyone who does not vote.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who had made the first public comments about why Tsvangirai fled to the Dutch Embassy, said in a statement late Monday he had hoped to persuade Mugabe and Tsvangirai to share power.

"I can say that this objective has been almost completely snuffed out since I have learned that soldiers went after Morgan Tsvangirai at his residence on Sunday," Wade said.

"Today, (Tsvangirai) is a refugee at the Netherlands Embassy, and there's no guarantee that soldiers won't attack that embassy to take him," Wade said.

Zimbabwean Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga refused to comment on reports Tsvangirai had fled soldiers, saying "this is becoming a circus."

Foreign ministers of the Southern African Development Community, the main regional political and economic bloc, called for talks among Zimbabwean leaders.

Sibotshiwe, Tsvangirai's spokesman, said the opposition was prepared to negotiate with the aim of forming a coalition transitional government. He said Tsvangirai should be president of the proposed transitional authority, and that Mugabe would have no role.

Alternatively, Sibotshiwe said, Tsvangirai was calling for the runoff to be postponed until a free and fair environment had been created.

Tsvangirai's party Tuesday released a copy of the letter sent to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission formally withdrawing from the race. In it, Tsvangirai cites Mugabe's threats on the campaign trail to go to war to stop Tsvangirai from ever gaining power.

McGee, the U.S. ambassador, said the Southern African Development Community, and South Africa as a leading member of that bloc, should speak out with words as "firm and as hard-hitting" as a U.N. Security Council statement issued Monday. The council condemned "the campaign of violence against the political opposition ahead of the second round of presidential elections," and said the violence and restrictions on opposition activists "have made it impossible for a free and fair election to take place."

Zimbabwe's neighbors may have more influence than the U.N., McGee said. Zimbabwe is a landlocked country and therefore vulnerable to actions such as border closings.

"Regional bodies have tremendous influence," McGee said. "There are so many things that could be brought to bear that could have a tremendous, immediate impact on the government of Zimbabwe."