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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Strikes and Protests 2007/8 - Index of articles
Zimbabwe's
opposition leader detained
MacDonald Dzirutwe and Richard Meares, Reuters
January 23, 2008
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23600787.htm
Police took away Zimbabwe's
main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the middle of the night
for questioning about a demonstration planned for later on Wednesday,
his lawyer said.
"The police are
saying they want to know what he is planning to do today,"
lawyer Alec Muchadehama told Reuters by telephone.
Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) planned the march to press veteran President
Robert Mugabe for a new constitution to guarantee parliamentary
and presidential elections due in March are free and fair.
The MDC launched a legal
challenge on Tuesday to a police ban on the march.
MDC secretary-general
Tendai Biti told Reuters that Tsvangirai was picked up from his
home in a suburb of the capital Harare by plain-clothes officers.
"He was picked up
at around 4 a.m. (2. a.m. British time) in respect of the intended
demonstration. His mobile phone is now off and we are really worried,"
he said.
The lawyer said police
also detained another MDC leader, Dennis Murira.
Mugabe has been in power
since independence from Britain in 1980.
Tsvangirai was last arrested
in March 2007 along with dozens of opposition officials ahead of
another planned march. He says police beat him up in custody. They
deny this.
The police had initially
granted permission for this Wednesday's march, which the MDC called
to protest against a crumbling economy blamed on government mismanagement
as well as to press for a new constitution.
On Tuesday, lawyer Muchadehama
said the Harare magistrate's court would hear an application on
Wednesday on overturning the ban, which police say was prompted
by fears the demonstration would degenerate into violence and looting.
Zimbabweans
have tended to shy away from demonstrations in recent years, mainly
from fear of a heavy-handed response by security forces.
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