By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean security agents arrested a leader of the opposition MDC on Friday ahead of a swearing-in ceremony for a new unity cabinet in which he was due to take a post, the party said.
The arrest did not stop the ceremony from going ahead.
But it could increase tensions between President Robert Mugabe and new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, from the MDC, after they ended months of deadlock over a power-sharing deal designed to rescue their ruined country.
The Movement for Democratic Change said in a statement that Roy Bennett, nominated by Tsvangirai as deputy minister of agriculture, had been arrested at the airport and taken to what it called a "notorious torture and interrogation base."
It said he was held at a police station in Mutare in the east of the country.
Police later attempted to take Bennett to an inaccessible rural police station, but returned him to Mutare after a protest by about 200 MDC members, the MDC said in a statement.
The MDC said the city's mayor and MDC member Brian James was also being held in the building, which was surrounded by heavily armed police.
Police were not immediately available for comment.
Bennett has been living in exile in South Africa after fleeing the country about two years ago because police wanted to question him in connection with the discovery of an arms cache in eastern Zimbabwe.
Foreign investors and Western donors want concrete signs of stability in Zimbabwe. They have made it clear that funds will not flow to the southern African country until a democratic government is created and economic reforms are made.
"The arrest is a bad sign, a sign he (Mugabe) doesn't care about the feelings of his new partners in that government," said John Makumbe, a veteran political analyst and Mugabe critic.
Tsvangirai told the BBC that resistance to power-sharing could be expected from those who feel they have been left out or want to hold onto power at all cost.
Britain, a fierce critic of Mugabe, is ready to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe if the new unity government releases political prisoners and pushes through economic reforms, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
"IRREVERSIBLE"
"The underlying thing is that we have to find a solution to the country's crisis. Mugabe may be part of the problem, but he's also part of the solution," Tsvangirai said.
Both sides have named party stalwarts to the cabinet rather than technocrats seen as having the expertise Zimbabwe needs to escape its crisis. Political analysts have suggested that could lead to further mismanagement.
Close Mugabe ally Emmerson Mnangagwa, touted as a potential successor to the veteran leader, was appointed defence minister. Former defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi was appointed national state security minister.
Tsvangirai picked lawyer and MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti as finance minister.
Some of the ZANU-PF members in the new cabinet have held ministerial posts since independence from Britain in 1980, when Mugabe came to power.
Sensitivities over allocation of cabinet posts, which was the main hurdle in long power-sharing talks, surfaced again at the swearing-in ceremony.
MDC ministers refused to rehearse the oath-taking ceremony, saying Mugabe had appointed five more ministers than his party had been allocated under the power-sharing agreement.
"Those additions (to the cabinet) are a clear message that (Mugabe) is and will be seeking to dominate his partners," Makumbe said.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed last September to share power, but the deal stalled over the allocation of cabinet posts, stirring doubts over whether the old foes can work together.
Zimbabwe is suffering unemployment above 90 percent, prices double every day, half the 12 million population need food aid and a cholera epidemic has killed over 3,500 people.
Mugabe appeared relaxed.
"Here we are, smiling at each other, making jokes, showing there is a build-up of harmony among us. Long may that continue," he said,
