TORONTO: Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he fears being attacked or imprisoned if he returns to his country.

“It is no use going back to Zimbabwe and become captive. Then you are not effective. What can you do?”, he said in an interview in the Saturday edition of the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.

“Do you want a dead hero?”, Tsvangirai added.

He left Zimbabwe on April 8, 10 days after an election he is widely believed to have won, although the government’s electoral commission has yet to release the results.

Tsvangirai said in the interview on Friday in Johannesburg that he would return to Zimbabwe, but first he must continue the shuttle diplomacy that he views as the most likely strategy to unseat President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled since independence in 1980.

“I’m mobilising international support, I’m being effective in making sure that the issue of Zimbabwe remains on the international radar,” Tsvangirai said.—Reuters