Zimbabwe police chief tells Tsvangirai to 'go home and sleep'

Zimbabwe police chief tells Tsvangirai to 'go home and sleep'

HIDING: Tsvangirai has sought refuge in the Dutch embassy

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• Text: Tsvangirai's statement announcing pull-out

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• Mugabe threatens to arrest MDC leaders

• Tendai Biti arrested on return to Zimbabwe

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• MDC senator's house attacked: party

• Police say war veteran killed by MDC supporters

• Tsvangirai released, told to suspend rallies

• Mutambara says Mugabe seeks to decapitate MDC

• Tsvangirai detained, then released

• Mutambara freed on bail, lawyer challenges charges

• Bush says Mutambara's arrest 'deplorable'

• Mutambara arrested over Mugabe attack

• Text: Tsvangirai speech to MDC parliamentary caucus

• Tsvangirai leaves door open for unity government

• Tsvangirai's tears for slain activist

• Morgan Tsvangirai: Zimbabwe restoration about to begin

• Arthur Mutambara: Rethinking the African economic model

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By Lebo Nkatazo

ZIMBABWE’S top policeman last night sent out a message to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai: Come out of hiding. You are safe.

The MDC was still to explain why Tsvangirai had sought refuge at the Dutch embassy in Harare following his announcement on Sunday that he was withdrawing from a presidential election run-off on Friday.

"We wonder whom Tsvangirai is running away or hiding from,” said Police Commissioner, Augustine Chihuri. “We do not have any complaints from him or his party of any threats of violence or attempts on his life that would cause him to fear for his safety and seek sanctuary in a foreign embassy.

"As far as we are concerned, we do not want Tsvangirai for any crime and we have always been open about any arrest we make.”

A Dutch foreign ministry spokesman said Tsvangirai had taken refugee at the embassy on Sunday night.

But even as late as Monday afternoon, the MDC was still cagey about its leader’s whereabouts, as if to suggest it had not been intended that his hide-out is made public.

Tsvangirai’s spokesman, George Sibotshiwe, having himself fled Zimbabwe on Sunday, told South Africa’s Citizen newspaper that the MDC leader was in a “safe place” – claiming reports saying he was at the Dutch embassy were false.

Chihuri said the MDC leader was “deluded” to believe he was under threat, and urged the Dutch embassy to “tell him to go home and enjoy his sleep and nothing will happen to him”.

The police chief added: "We believe the latest development of seeking refuge at the Dutch Embassy is an exhibitionist antic intended to provoke international anger and muster sympathy from his handlers.

"For him now to turn around at the eleventh hour running away from his own shadow is a development beyond comprehension. Who is he trying to please by these antics? Whose agenda is he pursuing with this dithering?"

Tsvangirai said on Sunday that the police had been “hapless bystanders” in the violence that has hit the run up to Friday’s election. The MDC says at least 80 of its supporters have been killed by President Mugabe’s loyalists and its polling agents were unwilling to stand for the party during elections fearing attack.
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