Lawyers demanded access to Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday after his arrest, along with dozens of supporters, when riot police crushed an anti-government demonstration in Harare.
And as Tsvangirai supporters expressed fears for the Movement for Democratic Change leader’s welfare, the United States warned Mugabe’s government to ensure that those arrested came to no harm.
The MDC leader has so far not been allowed to see either legal representatives or medics since he was arrested on Sunday close to the scene of the protest against veteran President Robert Mugabe.
”We have information that he was beaten up … [but] the police wouldn’t let us see him last [Sunday] night,” Tsvangirai’s chief lawyer Alec Muchadehama told Agence France-Presse.
”Even this morning we have been trying to gain access to him. Now we have an urgent chamber application in the High Court to seek their release.”
Apart from Tsvangirai, a host of other senior opposition figures were detained in police sweeps on Sunday, including four MDC lawmakers and Lovemore Madhuku, head of the National Constitutional Assembly.
Muchadehama said he had been allowed to see Madkhuku overnight, claiming that he bore the scars of police brutality.
”He has a fractured arm and blood all over his shirt. He also sustained head injuries. His head is bandaged.”
The arrests came amid a police crackdown on the demonstration which was to have taken place on Sunday afternoon in the township of Highfields, a traditional hotbed of opposition to Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party.
The Save Zimbabwe Campaign — a coalition of rights groups, opposition and church activists — had billed the gathering as a prayer meeting in a bid to circumvent a recent ban on political rallies.
However the police cordoned off the area and rounded up activists who tried to make it to the sports ground where the rally was to have been held.
National police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzujena said Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, leader of a smaller MDC faction, were arrested as they were ”going around inciting people to come and indulge in violent activities”.
Bvudzujena also confirmed that police had shot dead an MDC activist. He said the man had ignored warning shots as he threatened a group of officers at a shopping mall in Highfields.
In Washington, the United States State Department condemned ”the brutal and unwarranted actions of the government of Zimbabwe” against people who it said were trying to peacefully ”exercise their legitimate democratic rights”.
”We hold President Robert Mugabe and the government of Zimbabwe accountable for the government’s actions today, and for the safety and well-being of those in custody,” said spokesperson Sean McCormack.
The fatal shooting and arrests have further enraged opponents of Mugabe who voiced ambitions in a weekend interview for another term of office.
The next presidential elections are currently scheduled to take place in 2008 but the 83-year-old Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, would only stand again if chosen as Zanu-PF’s candidate.
While he was given provisional approval in December to extend his presidency until 2010, ostensibly to coincide with parliamentary polls, such a move still needs the backing of the party’s powerful central committee. – Sapa-AFP