Zimbabwe Refugees Flee Mobs Loyal to Mugabe

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Mobs loyal to President Mugabe have forced about 3,000 refugees to flee their homes as a national terror campaign gathers pace across Zimbabwe.

Gangs from the ruling Zanu-PF party are ranging across rural Zimbabwe, hunting down supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Their victims are fleeing into the capital, Harare, seeking safety and medical treatment.

Chingatayi Chimomo, 13, was separated from his parents when a Zanu-PF gang burned down his home, 120 miles north-east of Harare. Mr. Chingatayi's father, John, was an MDC parliamentary candidate. "We ran into the forest and saw about 50 people burning our house down and taking all our things. My father was a candidate and he told us to run away and he ran away to another place," the boy said.

Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for the MDC, said about 3,000 people had been displaced. He said four opposition supporters had been murdered since the election's first round on March 29 and hundreds assaulted.

Last week, the Daily Telegraph disclosed that Mr. Mugabe planned to secure re-election by using a national network of "command centres" to wage a terror campaign.