U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday not to hold the run-off presidential election as planned on Friday, saying the result would lack legitimacy.
Dutch officials said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had taken refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare after pulling out of the election because of attacks on his supporters.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change said police raided its Harare headquarters on Monday and took away more than 60 victims of the violence sheltering there, including women and children. The MDC says nearly 90 of its supporters have been killed by militias backing Mugabe.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said it was still looking forward to elections on Friday. "We don't have a war. We will be able to hold credible elections," ZEC chairman George Chiweshe said.
Ban, speaking to reporters at the United Nations after meeting the 15-nation U.N. Security Council, said Tsvangirai's decision to withdraw from the run-off was "understandable".
"I would strongly discourage the authorities from going ahead with the run-off on Friday," Ban said. "It will only deepen divisions within the country and produce a result that cannot be credible."
Ban said he was distressed by the events leading to Tsvangirai's withdrawal. "There has been too much violence and too much intimidation," he said. "A vote held in these conditions would lack all legitimacy."
Without specifically blaming Mugabe, Ban spoke of a "campaign of threat and intimidation" against the citizens of Zimbabwe, and said the situation was "the single greatest challenge to regional stability in southern Africa today."
The Dutch foreign ministry said Tsvangirai had not requested asylum but had spent Sunday night in the embassy after withdrawing from the June 27 election on Sunday. It said he was welcome to stay for his own security.
POLICE 'SHOCKED' BY REFUGE MOVE
Zimbabwean Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri said the police had been 'shocked and surprised' by Tsvangirai's decision to seek refuge in the Dutch embassy.
".it is obviously a calculated move to besmirch the presidential run-off election due this Friday . and further brutalise the image of Zimbabwe and in particular the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) on the international arena," Chihuri told a news conference in Harare.
