Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested on Wednesday in a raid at the headquarters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare, a party spokesperson said.
Tsvangirai and about 20 administrative members of staff were detained by members of President Robert Mugabe’s security services shortly before the MDC leader had been due give a press conference on the alleged abduction of a party activist.
”All members of staff and Morgan Tsvangirai have been arrested,” the party’s secretary general, Tendai Biti, said.
”At least 20 people were in the office at the time,” Biti added.
There was no immediate confirmation of the arrests from the Zimbabwean authorities, but they would mark the second time this month that Tsvangirai had been detained.
Dozens of police had sealed off the area around the party’s offices in the upmarket 1st Street shopping mall during the raid, according to an Agence France-Presse correspondent at the scene.
The security forces were armed with tear-gas canisters, sticks, riot helmets and AK47 rifles.
Many shop owners shut their stores when the security forces turned up in force, apparently fearful of violence.
Dozens of MDC activists, including Tsvangirai, were detained by members of Mugabe’s security services and then assaulted earlier this month while trying to stage an anti-government rally on March 11.
Mugabe, who has been unapologetic about the use of force to suppress the opposition, is due in Tanzania for a regional summit where the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe is expected to be debated.
Opposition to 83-year-old Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, has steadily mounted amid an economic meltdown, with inflation at 1 730% and widespread food shortages in the one-time bread basket of Southern Africa.
Despite his ordeal at the hands of the security services, Tsvangirai has defiantly continued to call for Mugabe’s ouster.
Talking to journalists after a memorial service on Tuesday for an MDC activist who was shot dead on March 11, Tsvangirai said that the assaults had served to unite the formerly fractious opposition.
”You can see that everybody is united and is mobilised and confronting the dictatorship,” he said.
”There is no dictator in this world who has succeeded to oppress the people forever … We cannot dignify an old man who has lost his mind,” he said.
Key facts about Tsvangirai
- Tsvangirai is a self-taught son of a bricklayer. Born in March 1952 in Gutu in central Zimbabwe, he worked in a mine to support his family and cut his political teeth in the labour movement as a mine foreman.
- He helped found the labour-backed MDC in 1999. Despite killings and police intimidation, the MDC stunned the ruling party in June 2000 by winning 57 of the 120 seats at stake in a parliamentary election as Tsvangirai captivated the public with powerful speeches.
- Tsvangirai was acquitted in October 2004 of plotting to assassinate Mugabe and seize power before 2002 presidential elections. The government in August withdrew a remaining treason charge.
- Led by Tsvangirai, the MDC lost 10 seats in a 2005 parliamentary election which handed Mugabe’s party a crushing majority. The MDC lodged court challenges to the result, which it said was rigged.
- Tsvangirai was re-elected leader of the MDC in March 2006 after calling for mass action to step up pressure on Mugabe’s government. The party split in 2005 in a bitter feud over how to tackle Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF, with a splinter group accusing Tsvangirai of behaving in dictatorial fashion and breaking away to form their own MDC faction party.
- In November 2006, Tsvangirai led his top lieutenants in a march to Parliament to protest against Mugabe’s rule in the face of a deepening economic crisis. Last Friday new figures revealed that inflation hit a new record of 1 729,9% in February from 1 593,6% the previous month. – Sapa-AFP, Reuters