Zimbabwe opposition leader Tsvangirai detained again

Zimbabwean authorities today detained opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai for the third time in two weeks and said a top official from his party would be charged with treason.

Tsvangirai was released after two hours of detention. But Tendai Biti, secretary-general of his Movement for Democratic Change, faces treason charges related to his alleged publication of a document on a transition of power from the ruling ZANU-PF party to the opposition after March 29 elections, according to police.

The MDC claims Tsvangirai won that balloting and should have become president, but the government’s election committee ruled that no one had won outright and ordered a second-round election June 27 between the opposition leader and longtime President Robert Mugabe.

Biti had been under pressure from police since holding a news conference March 30 announcing that his party won the elections, based on its figures. He left Zimbabwe two weeks later, but returned today Tsvangirai was arrested with other opposition officials at a roadblock near the town of Kwekwe and taken to the police station.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told the Associated Press that Biti would be charged with treason, which could carry the death penalty. Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri is one of a small group of hard-line security ministers backing Mugabe in his bid to hold on to power.

Chihuri publicly stated before the election that the police force would never allow opposition “puppets” to take power.

Tsvangirai has been repeatedly harassed and detained since his he returned just over a fortnight ago from a post-election trip out of the country to seek support from African leaders. Opposition rallies have been canceled and MDC activists have been arrested and beaten for trying to put up election posters.

More than 60 opposition activists have been killed, according to MDC figures, and thousands of supporters and activists beaten. Diplomats investigating the violence have also been detained.

The rights group Human Rights Watch said Monday that the level of election violence was unprecedented in Zimbabwe. It said the June 27 election could not be free and fair if violence continued at this level.

 robyn.dixon@latimes.com