Zimbabwe police detain another opposition leader

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was detained yesterday as he campaigned for a presidential election run-off, his party said.

"It appears they want to disrupt our campaign programme," said Mr Tsvangirai's spokesman, George Sibotshiwe.

The MDC said Mr Tsvangirai's four-vehicle convoy was stopped at a roadblock manned by police and members of President Robert Mugabe's feared Central Intelligence Organisation. He was held at a rural police station southwest of Harare.

Mr Sibotshiwe said the senior officer was speaking to Mr Tsvangirai and it appeared that he might be charged with violating Zimbabwe's public order and security act after the campaign stop in the town of Lupane.

Police made no immediate comment.

Mr Tsvangirai, who has been arrested several times in the past, defeated Mr Mugabe in a March 29 presidential election but failed to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a second ballot. The run-off is scheduled for June 27.

Last Tuesday the leader of a faction of Zimbabwe's main opposition party, Arthur Mutambara, appeared in court to face charges of contempt of court and communicating falsehoods prejudicial to the state after he too was arrested, for publishing an article critical of President Robert Mugabe. He was later granted bail and released from custody.

In March last year, Mr Tsvangirai was detained and badly beaten in police custody in March last year after he tried to attend a banned anti-government rally in a Harare township.

Mr Mugabe's vow never to allow the MDC to take power has stoked opposition fears that the ruling Zanu-Pf will use intimidation and vote-rigging to extend the president's 28-year rule. The opposition says 50 people have been killed by Mr Mugabe's supporters since the election.

Yesterday it said soldiers and Zanu-pf activists had beaten and threatened to shoot Zimbabweans who wanted to meet and support Mr Tsvangirai.

"Mugabe is determined to turn the whole country into a war zone in order to subvert the will of the people and steal the June 27th election by any means possible," Mr Tsvangirai said while campaigning in Bulawayo.

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Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was released by police after being detained for more than eight hours yesterday evening, his lawyer said.

"They've just been released without charge. The police were saying he addressed an unsanctioned meeting... They were held for eight hours before their release," Mr Tsvangirai's lawyer Job Sibanda said.

class="author"Nelson Banya, Reuters