By Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean police blocked oppositionleader Morgan Tsvangirai from reaching a rally on Friday in hiscampaign ahead of a presidential run-off vote later this month,a Reuters photographer said.
Tsvangirai was stopped from reaching a rally outsideZimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo, after police put up aroadblock. His Movement for Democratic Change party accusesPresident Robert Mugabe of trying to sabotage his campaign.
"The police set up a roadblock on the way to How Mine,where Tsvangirai was heading as part of his campaign tour inMatabeleland," the photographer said.
Tsvangirai was not detained as he was earlier this week forseveral hours. There was no immediate comment from police.
The MDC leader postponed plans to attend the rally andcontinued to another town where he went on a walking tour at ashopping centre, meeting and talking to residents.
His party said earlier on Friday that harassment ofdiplomats and aid groups showed Mugabe's government would failto respect the rule of law during the June 27 presidentialelection run-off.
The accusation by Tendai Biti, secretary general of theMDC, came a day after police detained U.S. and Britishdiplomats outside Harare and relief agencies were barred fromdoing work in the country.
"It is almost as if the regime is sending out a message tothe region, to the international community that it doesn'tcare, that it has no respect for life, it has no respect forthe rule of law," Biti said in a presentation at the WorldEconomic Forum for Africa in Cape Town.
"The regime is increasing the decibels of insanity."
Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in a March 29 election but failed towin the majority needed to avoid a second ballot. Tsvangiraiwas held and questioned by police for eight hours earlier thisweek while campaigning.
(Additional reporting by Wendell Roelf in Cape Town;Writing by Marius Bosch; Editing by Paul Simao and MatthewTostevin)
