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Zim police: Tsvangirai safe
23/06/2008 20:45 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's police chief said on Monday opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was under no threat and had taken refuge at the Dutch embassy in a "move intended to provoke international anger".
"It is an exhibitionist antic, (a) move intended to provoke international anger," police chief Augustine Chihuri said.
"We at the same time ask the Dutch embassy, if indeed he is there, to tell him to go home and enjoy your sleep and nothing will happen to him."
He also described it as a "well calculated move to besmirch the presidential run-off election ... and further brutalise the image of Zimbabwe."
Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, was holed up in the Dutch embassy in Harare on Monday after saying he was abandoning his election challenge to President Robert Mugabe because of growing violence.
"A request was made yesterday (Sunday) by his party, the MDC, and Minister Verhagen decided that, if he sought safety, it would be granted," a spokesperson for Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told AFP.
"He is currently reflecting on what the next step should be," Bart Rijs added.
Also on Monday, police raided the headquarters of Tsvangirai's MDC.
MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said more than 60 people, many of them "victims of political violence", had been rounded up in the raid.
A police spokesperson denied any arrests and said 39 people had been taken away for health reasons.
Chihuri repeated his spokesperson's comments, though he said police removed 37 people.
"We got information from some sources and a reputable international organisation that there were people housed at (MDC headquarters) and these people were living in dire situations and unhygienic and unclear situations," the police chief said.
"None of them has been arrested ... No one was looking for anybody, let alone Mr Tsvangirai."
The police spokesperson said earlier they were taken to a rehabilitation centre east of Harare.
- AFP
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