Zimbabwe opposition leader flees to embassy as Mugabe mobs run amok

MORGAN Tsvangirai has taken refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare as Zimbabwe teeters on the brink.

The leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) went to the embassy on Sunday night after announcing he was withdrawing from this Friday's run-off election because of escalating violence.

A spokesman for Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch foreign minister, said yesterday: "He is temporarily at the embassy of the Netherlands in Harare. A request was made yesterday by his party, the MDC, and Minister Verhagen decided that, if he sought safety, it would be granted."

He said Mr Tsvangirai had not been granted asylum but had been told he could stay at the embassy for as long as he wished.

Robert Mugabe's government insisted Friday's run-off would go ahead. Patrick Chinamasa, the justice minister, told state radio it was too late for Mr Tsvangirai to change his mind and said the MDC leader was simply scared of losing.

In a bid to cement voters' loyalty, Mr Mugabe has ordered price cuts of up to 90 per cent in some areas. Truckloads of scarce goods are being sent from Harare to so-called People's Shops, which were inaugurated by Mr Mugabe during his campaign. These will be forced to sell bottles of cooking oil at Z$1 billion, or about 6p, according to the official Herald daily. Normally, a bottle costs Z$16 billion (£1).

As tensions rose, riot police swooped on the MDC's Harvest House HQ in Harare at lunchtime yesterday, bundling people, some of them badly injured, into a bus and taking them away. "Over 60 people, mainly women and children, victims of political violence, were rounded up," an MDC spokesman said. He described the raid as "an act of desperation and frustration after we made the decision not to participate in their electoral charade". Police told state radio "unhealthy" conditions at Harvest House prompted the raid.

Mr Tsvangirai announced his decision not to contest the run-off after scores of stick-wielding Zanu-PF supporters surrounded the venue for an MDC rally on Sunday. He said the poll would be a "sham" because voters had been told they would be killed if they voted for his party. More than 70 of his supporters have already been killed.

The MDC said Thamsanqa Mahlangu, a new MP, was battling for his life in intensive care at a Harare hospital after being assaulted by Zanu-PF militias.

Mr Mugabe's militias are now forcing terrified urban dwellers to learn – and chant – a new slogan: "WW, win or war". Some of the militias are as young as 16; a schoolteacher from Mutare told The Scotsman she recognised one of them as a pupil.

Mr Tsvangirai won the first round of voting on 29 March with 47.9 per cent – just short of the 50 per cent plus one vote he needed to avoid a rerun.

Friday's poll will not be the first time Mr Mugabe has stood as the only candidate. In 1996, his two rivals, Abel Muzorewa and Ndabaningi Sithole, both withdrew shortly before the presidential election.

Voting went ahead with all three names on the ballot papers and Mr Mugabe won with more than 90 per cent of the vote.

Brown: World must unite against 'criminal cabal'

GORDON Brown has urged world leaders not to give recognition to Robert Mugabe's "criminal cabal" in Zimbabwe, as he joined international condemnation of the brutal regime.

The Prime Minister and other Cabinet ministers joined calls for harsher sanctions on the Zimbabwean president's inner circle and their immediate family, as the UN Security Council prepared to meet last night.

Mr Brown said: "The international community must send a powerful and united message that we will not recognise the fraudulent election-rigging, violence and intimidation of a criminal cabal. The world is of one view – the status quo cannot continue. The current government, holding power only because of violence and intimidation, should not be recognised by anyone."

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, ruled out cutting off electricity supplies to the country, or stopping remittances of foreign currency to Zimbabwe. But he said there was a need to "consider urgently how we can put further pressure" on Mugabe and his allies.

Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister, said Britain may push for sanctions that force domestic firms to cut ties with Zimbabwe.