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Zim cops detain 215
26/04/2008 17:03 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe police detained 215 people in a raid on the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the capital Harare, a police spokesperson was quoted on Saturday.
"Police rounded up 215 people at Harvest House" on Friday, the state-controlled Herald newspaper quoted police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena as saying on Saturday.
The detainees "will be screened against participation in politically-motivated criminal activities around the country," he said.
Armed riot police ransacked the offices of the MDC where some victims of post-election violence had taken refuge and drove the activists to a police station in a bus and some trucks.
The raid came on the back of reports in the state media that MDC activists had burned down homesteads belonging to President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
"Those accused of burning the homesteads were said to have fled to Harare to seek refuge at the MDC headquarters. This is not the first time the MDC headquarters has been raided," Bvudzijena was quoted as saying.
"The police will pursue such perpetrators until they are finally brought to book and hiding at party offices should not be seen as an escape route from prosecution."
The police also raided the offices of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a group of non-governmental organisations considered the only reliable independent source of information about the March 29 elections.
The group has named MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai as the winner over veteran Mugabe in the first round of the presidential election, from which no official results have been released to date.
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