Harare Maintains Pressure On Opposition With Siege Of Party Headquarters
Defense lawyers for Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders expressed perplexity at the apparent breakdown of the legal process in rece
The crisis in Zimbabwe again sharpened late Wednesday as police surrounded the Harare headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, hours after authorities released a battered MDC founding president Morgan Tsvangirai and other prominent political and civil society opponents of President Robert Mugabe. Sources said heavily armed riot police surrounded Harvest House, MDC headquarters in the capital, for three hours. The government has put the police and the army on high alert in major cities and towns, apparently to prevent an upsurge of protests. Detained opposition leaders and activists were released Tuesday evening though they had not been arraigned, and the police and state prosecutors again failed to present the necessary paperwork in court Wednesday, leaving leaving them at liberty. Doctors at the Avenues Clinic in Harare said Tsvangirai sustained a fractured skull while in police hands. Also still hospitalized were Tendai Biti, secretary general of Tsvangirai’s opposition faction, Nelson Chamisa, his information secretary, and Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly. Defense lawyers for Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders released Tuesday night expressed perplexity at the apparent breakdown of the legal process in the cases. A Harare high court judge ordered Monday that the detainees must receive medical attention and be brought into magistrate’s court by noon Tuesday, but police did not produce the prisoners until 2 p.m. Tuesday and no medical care had been provided. Police released the prisoners Tuesday evening without having arraigned them. Mtetwa finally called a state prosecutor who said the cases would be taken up early Wednesday - but yesterday again the arraignment failed to take place. Police and prosecutors did not object as defense lawyers sent their clients home.