By Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) - Police released Zimbabwe's oppositionleader Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday after holding him formore than eight hours, his lawyer and party officials said.
Tsvangirai was detained shortly after noon as he campaignedfor a presidential election run-off, along with the vicepresident and chairman of his Movement for Democratic Change(MDC), the party said.
"They've just been released without charge. The police weresaying he addressed an unsanctioned meeting...They were heldfor 8 hours before their release," Tsvangirai's lawyer JobSibanda said.
The MDC said Tsvangirai's four-vehicle convoy was stoppedat a roadblock manned by police and members of President RobertMugabe's feared Central Intelligence Organization. He was heldat a rural police station southwest of Harare.
"It appears they want to disrupt our campaign programme,"said Tsvangirai's spokesman, George Sibotshiwe.
Tsvangirai, who has been arrested several times in thepast, defeated Mugabe in a March 29 presidential election butfailed to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a secondballot. The run-off is scheduled for June 27.
In March last year, Tsvangirai was detained and badlybeaten in police custody after he tried to attend a bannedanti-government rally in Harare.
Mugabe's vow never to allow the MDC to take power hasstoked opposition fears that the ruling ZANU-PF will useintimidation and vote-rigging to extend the president's 28-yearrule.
The United States said Tsvangirai's detention was deeplydisturbing.
"He should be released immediately, unharmed, untouched,"State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington.
"WAR ZONE"
The opposition says 65 people have been killed by Mugabe'ssupporters since the election. On Wednesday it said soldiersand ZANU-PF activists had beaten and threatened to shootZimbabweans who wanted to support Tsvangirai.
"Mugabe is determined to turn the whole country into a warzone in order to subvert the will of the people and steal theJune 27th election by any means possible," Tsvangirai saidwhile campaigning in Bulawayo before he was held by police.
Mugabe says the opposition is responsible for violence.
The government confirmed that it had suspended theoperations of aid agency CARE International and otherhumanitarian groups, saying they had become involved inpolitics and were backing Tsvangirai's campaign.
CARE International has denied the charge.
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said the groupswould be allowed to resume their work if they avoided politics.
"They must choose between politics and genuine humanitarianwork," he said.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch accused Zimbabwe of usingfood as a political weapon, while the United States said thesuspension would mean that more than 100,000 Zimbabweans wouldgo hungry this month.
Speaking in Rome, U.N. High Commissioner for Human RightsLouise Arbour said she was deeply concerned by the reports: "Todeprive people of food because of an election would be anextraordinary perversion of democracy, and a serious breach ofinternational human rights law."
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Tsvangirai'sarrest heightened "further the fears of the Zimbabwean peopleand the international community about the conditions underwhich the poll will be held."
Zimbabwe's agricultural sector has collapsed since 2000,when Mugabe's government began seizing white-owned farms aspart of a land redistribution policy designed to help poorblacks.
Zimbabwe now suffers chronic food shortages and relies onimports and foreign aid to feed its people. Mugabe blames theeconomic collapse on sanctions imposed by enemies in the West.
(Additional reporting by Paul Simao in Johannesburg, JeremyPelofsky in Washington, Robin Pomeroy in Rome and Huw Jones inBrussels; Editing by Marius Bosch and Jon Boyle)
