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Mugabe rival arrested ahead of runoff vote
 Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe attends the United Nations food summit in Rome this week. |
Zimbabwe police detained presidential contender Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday, less than a month before the run-off election against President Robert Mugabe, a police spokesman said.
Tsvangirai, head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, was picked up by police because he was going to attend an unauthorized meeting in southern Zimbabwe, said Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the party. He told CNN that several other MDC leaders also were detained.
Tsvangirai was picked up around 2 p.m. (8 a.m. ET), he said.
Chamisa, who said he has gone into hiding fearing his own arrest, is communicating to journalists via text message.
“The president (Tsvangirai) is still in police detention,” Chamisa wrote. “They have not charged him. We are really worried by the lack of professionalism and lack of fear by the police to detain our next president for no reason at all.”
MDC has accused Mugabe and his supporters of orchestrating a reign of violence ahead of the June 27 run-off, using beatings and dozens of arrests in a attempt to sway the results.
Mugabe and his supporters have disputed these claims, saying that MDC party members have concocted stories to get international support.
But on Sunday, the head of an MDC faction Arthur Mutambara was arrested on charges of criticizing Mugabe’s government. Also, at least 30 aid agencies that provide food, health care and other services to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in Zimbabwe were told to suspend their work in the country after the government accused them of helping Tsvangirai’s party.
Mugabe is currently in Rome attending a United Nations World Food Summit.
The fallout from Zimbabwe’s stalled election has brought a chorus of international criticism. The most recent criticism came from U.S. President George Bush who said Monday: “The continued use of government-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe, including unwarranted arrests and intimidation of opposition figures, to prevent the Movement for Democratic Change from campaigning freely ahead of the June 27 presidential runoff election is deplorable.”
The first election was March 29. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, after weeks of delay, ruled that neither candidate won the required majority of votes, and scheduled a runoff election for June 27.
Tsvangirai, who claims he won the first election, wants international observers to monitor the second round of voting, but Mugabe’s government has declined to allow it.
This is not the first time Tsvangirai has faced alleged intimidation attempts. He fled the country to South Africa in March because, he said, he was being targeted for assassination by the government. A Zimbabwe Cabinet member denied that claim to CNN at the time.
Last March, Tsvangirai was severely beaten in a police crackdown. The pictures of his battered and swollen face were circulated around the world and became an enduring image of political struggle in the country. Source: CNN
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