Zimbabwe says activists detained over bombings

[ellisonz]

Source: Associated Press

Zimbabwe says activists detained over bombings
By Cris Chinaka 54 minutes ago

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe police said more than 200 opposition activists and officials arrested on Saturday were suspects in recent petrol bomb attacks on police stations, shops and some government supporters.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says allegations that its supporters have launched a violent campaign against President Robert Mugabe's 27-year rule are designed to justify a brutal crackdown on its structures ahead of general elections next year.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said riot police, armed with pistols and batons, raided the party's head office in Harare on Saturday and detained more than 200 people, and gave no reason for the move at the time.

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The Saturday arrests came a day after Zimbabwe extended a ban on political protests in Harare which the country's embattled opposition has likened to "a state of emergency."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070527/wl_nm/zimbabwe_opposition_arrests_dc;_ylt=AmSvB0np3pMxG1hEcOAx0kS96Q8F

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Methinks the opposition in this case is quite correct and frankly if it is true that they're bombing Mugabe's thugs then I'm all for it. The arrestees will likely be tortured based. The last major crackdown was in March:

"The arrest and severe beating of over 50 opposition leaders and civil society activists by police and state security officers on March 11 marked a new low in Zimbabwe’s seven-year political crisis. It ignited a new government campaign of violence and repression against members of the opposition and civil society – and increasingly ordinary citizens – in the capital Harare and elsewhere throughout the country. Police used disproportionate and lethal force against unarmed activists resulting in the death of at least one activist, Gift Tandare, and serious injuries to several others."

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/18/zimbab15968.htm

[maddezmom]

1. Zimbabwe releases 115 opposition party members

Zimbabwe releases 115 opposition party members
(CNN) -- More than half of the more than 200 opposition party members arrested Saturday in Zimbabwe have been released, a spokesman for the southern African nation's main opposition movement said Sunday.

The 115 releases left about 85 opposition members still in detention, said Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for Movement for Democratic Change.

"There is always detention without trial; we don't know when they're going to be released; Mugabe is the rule of law," he said, referring to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who has maintained an iron grip on power in his country, long beset by economic problems. His security forces have regularly cracked down on MDC members.

Chamisa denied a Reuters report citing police who said the detainees were suspects in recent petrol bomb attacks on police stations, shops and government supporters. (Posted 1:08 p.m.)

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/27/sunday/index.html

[ellisonz]

2. 85 more to go. n/t

[ellisonz]

3. They've all now been released.

Not sure if there's been a follow-up. Some allege assault.

Zimbabwe police release arrested opposition supporters
POSTED: 11:16 a.m. EDT, May 28, 2007

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -- Police in Zimbabwe have released without charge nearly 200 opposition supporters arrested during a weekend raid on their party headquarters, their lawyer said Monday.

Police on Saturday stormed the headquarters of the Movement for Democratic Change in the capital, Harare, and arrested 197 activists attending a meeting, many of them from the party's youth wing.

"They've all been released," lawyer Alec Muchadehama said by telephone.

He said the party supporters were released in groups, with the last 41 freed Sunday evening.

"Some of them were alleging they had been assaulted by police," Muchadehama said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/05/28/zimbabwe.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest