His comments come two days after the European Union, angered by Zimbabwe's refusal to let its observers freely monitor the March 9-10 vote, ordered the monitors home and imposed sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's government.
The South African observers remained in the country. Their chief, Sam Motsoenyane, said Wednesday that he was "very disturbed" by violence in the Harare township of Epworth on Saturday and in downtown Harare Monday.
In Epworth, five opposition supporters were injured in clashes with ruling party militants as they headed to a rally for Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
On Monday, thousands of ruling party militants stoned the opposition's headquarters in Harare. Motsoenyane said office windows were broken and some people were injured while police stood by.
"It is alleged the police were present and did not act to prevent the incidents. This is a matter of great concern," Motsoenyane said. He promised to look into the charges.
It was the latest violence to mar the run up to elections, in which Mugabe could lose after 22 years in power. There have been several deaths, mainly opposition activists, human rights groups say.
Opposition officials have also charged that ruling party militants have set up "no-go" areas where the opposition cannot campaign. They say that from these areas the militants are launching violent forays into surrounding voter districts. [End Excerpt]
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Washington Times-- Zimbabwe intensifies election blackout -[Excerpt] The intimidation is so great that in an opinion poll made public yesterday, more than half of the 1,693 persons surveyed refused to say how they intended to vote.
Among those who did express an opinion to a University of Zimbabwe research group, Mr. Tsvangirai led Mr. Mugabe by an almost 2-to-1 margin. Police quickly banned the researchers from releasing further details of the poll.
Nor is the government eager for outside election observers to do their work. Last week, observers from the Washington-based National Democratic Institute were turned back at the border town of Livingstone near Victoria Falls. Observers from its Republican counterpart, the International Republican Institute, need not apply either. Swedish diplomat Pierre Schori, head of the European Union's observer delegation, was effectively thrown out of the country Saturday after the government, which had given him only a tourist visa, interpreted his statement that he intended to go ahead with his work as "arrogant" and "political."[End Excerpt]