Zimbabwe: 40,000 farm workers displaced

He recently secured bail for two journalists, one of whom works for the opposition. It was while representing these clients that Nkomo allegedly told a staff member at the attorney general's office, a nephew of Mugabe, that Mugabe should leave office, the New York-based watchdog said in a statement.

A 2002 law makes it a crime in Zimbabwe to criticize the president or his office.

As Zimbabwe awaits word on when a presidential runoff will be held, opposition party supporters are increasingly under attack.

It took Zimbabwe's electoral commission more than a month to announce results from the March 29 first round of voting. Independent rights activists have accused the ruling party of using that time to mount a campaign of violence and intimidation to undermine support for the opposition before a runoff.

More attacks have been reported since May 2, when electoral officials announced that Movement for Democratic Change president Morgan Tsvangirai won the most votes March 29, but not the majority needed to avoid a runoff with Mugabe.

The opposition has not said whether it will participate in a runoff.

In the time since the election, militia groups have driven 40,000 workers off farms in an effort to prevent them from voting in the run-off, according to a report released in Johannesburg, South Africa, by the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe.

In the election, Mugabe lost much of his traditional rural support to Tsvangirai. But by intimidating and displacing enough farm workers, ZANU-PF loyalists might be able to win the run-off, the union said.

John Worsley-Worswick, the head of the Justice for Agriculture Trust, an advocacy group, said at the same news conference that attacks on farm workers have escalated in the past week.

The report details beatings, burned huts, and intimidation. One former farm worker was beaten with iron bars and sticks, and another farmer was strangled with a wire, the group said.