By Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean police detained oppositionleader Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday for the second time thisweek after blocking him from reaching a campaign rally for theJune 27 presidential run-off vote.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change accusesPresident Robert Mugabe of trying to sabotage Tsvangirai'scampaign in order to preserve his 28-year hold on power.
Tsvangirai was released from the police station atEsigodini, 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Zimbabwe's secondlargest city Bulawayo, a few hours after being stopped by armedpolice at a roadblock.
The party called Tsvangirai's detention "a shameless anddesperate act".
"The regime must let the president do that which the peopleof Zimbabwe have mandated him and the MDC, to help restore thedignity of the people of Zimbabwe," it said in a statement.
It said police had banned several planned campaign ralliesbecause authorities could not guarantee the safety of partyleaders, adding that it would lodge a High Court action toprevent police interference in the campaign.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena blamed the opposition forthe incident on Friday, saying the MDC convoy crashed through aroadblock.
Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in a March 29 election butfailed to win the majority needed to avoid a second ballot, wasdetained on Wednesday and questioned by police for eight hours.
On Thursday, police stopped and held five U.S. and twoBritish diplomats for several hours after they visited victimsof political violence. Zimbabwe also barred relief agenciesfrom doing work in the country, suffering economic ruin.
AID BAN
U.S. Ambassador James McGee, among those detained onThursday, accused the government on Friday of using food aid totry to win votes.
"We are dealing with a desperate regime here which will doanything to stay in power," he told a video conference callfrom Harare. Washington has blamed the diplomats' detentionfirmly on Mugabe's government.
The United States and former colonial power Britain sayZimbabwe is trying to intimidate Tsvangirai's supporters.France's foreign ministry also said on Friday it was "extremelyworried by the climate of intimidation and violence."
The opposition says 65 people have been killed in violencesince the first round of voting. Mugabe blames his opponents.
Mugabe's government suspended the work of all internationalaid agencies in the southern African nation on Thursday, sayingsome of them were campaigning for the opposition.
Britain and the European Union demanded the lifting of theban. U.N. officials said it would increase suffering and CARE,one of the agencies whose work has been suspended, saidmillions of aid-dependent Zimbabweans were at risk.
EU aid commissioner Louis Michel said: "I am deeplydistressed to think that hundreds of thousands of people whodepend on aid from the European Commission and others for theirvery survival now face an even more uncertain future."
Zimbabwe, once one of Africa's most prosperous countries,has seen food production plummet since 2000 when Mugabe'sgovernment began seizing thousands of white-owned farms as partof a land redistribution programme to help poor blacks.
Many of the farms have ended up in the hands of Mugabeloyalists, and the country now faces chronic food shortages. Ithas had to rely on handouts and imports to feed its people.
Mugabe blames sanctions imposed by Western countries forthe collapse of the once prosperous economy. The oppositionsays he ruined Zimbabwe through mismanagement.
The Southern African Development Community, a regionalgrouping of 14 nations, including Zimbabwe, is sendingobservers to monitor the run-off.
(Additional reporting by Wendell Roelf in Cape Town,Katherine Baldwin in London, Crispian Balmer in Paris, RobertEvans in Geneva, Emilia Sithole-Matarise in Johannesburg, SuePleming in Washington; Writing by Marius Bosch; Editing byMatthew Tostevin)
