|
Back to Index
Opposition
leaders picked up by police
IRIN News
March 28, 2007
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=71013
JOHANNESBURG
- Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Zimbabwean opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), and several other members of his party
were detained by the police in the capital, Harare, on Wednesday,
said party officials and lawyers.
"Mr Tsvangirai
was about to address a press conference on the abduction of Ian
Makoni [MDC party member] and his wife last night [Tuesday], when
the police came and cordoned the road outside the MDC head office
and picked up every single person in the office," said Tendai Biti,
MDC secretary-general. He could not confirm the number of people
in the office at the time.
Otto Saki, an
attorney with Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights, an NGO that defends victims of rights
abuses, confirmed that Tsvangirai and other opposition members had
been "arrested". "But we still don't know on what grounds, and we
have not been allowed to access them."
Assistant Commissioner
Wayne Bvudzijena, the national police spokesman, has confirmed that
the police raided the MDC office and "picked up some people last
night" (Tuesday), but denied that Tsvangirai was in custody.
"Tsvangirai
was not among the people we picked up this morning as part of our
campaign to look for perpetrators of violence," he told IRIN.
Zimbabwe has
been simmering for the past two months, as ordinary people battle
with shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency, as well as an
annual inflation rate of more than 1,700 percent.
But the situation
has taken a violent turn since the police imposed a ban on political
rallies last month. After an opposition supporter was shot dead
by the police and opposition leaders, including Tsvangirai, were
allegedly beaten while in custody, strikes and protests have given
way to bombings of police stations across the country.
Neither Saki
or Biti have been able to establish where Tsvangirai or the other
MDC party members were being held. More details are awaited.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
