Defiant Mugabe refuses to bow to world pressure

Mugabe's plan to go ahead with Friday's vote appeared to stem less from a desire to validate his rule than to humiliate Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai "is frightened of the people," Mugabe told the crowd. "He ran and sought refuge in the Dutch Embassy .... Seeking refuge from what? Nobody wants to harm him."

In pulling out of the race Sunday, Tsvangirai said an onslaught of state-sponsored violence against his Democratic Movement for Change made competing in the runoff impossible.

The party said Tuesday that the chairwoman of one of its provincial branches was the latest victim when she was attacked and seriously injured by Mugabe loyalists in a northern region that has seen some of the worst violence.

The party also said the rural home of its national organizing secretary was attacked 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.

George Sibotshiwe, a spokesman for Tsvangirai, said the politician had received a tip that soldiers were on the way to his home Sunday, when he 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 in Angola after fleeing Zimbabwe earlier in the week. He said he saw armed men approaching a safe house where he had been staying in Zimbabwe and feared arrest.

Other opposition officials were also in hiding, among them Tsvangirai's campaign manager, Sibotshiwe said, adding that officials were no longer working out of the party's headquarters in Harare for fear of arrest.