By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe police arrested the oppositionMDC's secretary general as he arrived in the country onThursday, in the latest move to crack down on the party aheadof a June 27 presidential run-off vote, party officials said.
MDC officials said Tendai Biti was detained as he steppedoff a plane at Harare airport. Biti left the country soon afterdisputed March 29 elections to gather African support for the
MDC.
"About 10 men in plain clothes handcuffed him as he cameout of the plane and took him downstairs and drove him away,"MDC information director Luke Tamborinyika told Reuters.
The MDC and human rights groups have accused PresidentRobert Mugabe's government of waging a violent intimidationcampaign ahead of the run-off against MDC leader MorganTsvangirai.
The MDC says ZANU-PF activists have killed 66 oppositionsupporters to try to intimidate voters before the run-off, andpolice have detained Tsvangirai twice over the past week whiletrying to campaign.
The ruling party blames the opposition for the politicalviolence.
Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the first round of elections inMarch but not by enough to avoid a run-off, according toofficial figures.
Mugabe's support has been eroded by the economic collapseof the once prosperous country, which he has ruled sinceindependence from Britain in 1980.
Tsvangirai says Zimbabweans cannot afford Mugabe's rule anyfurther.
Mugabe has conceded that beneficiaries of his farm seizuresare using less than half the land and threatened to take it offthem.
Critics say the veteran leader has used the land reforms tohelp sustain his rule, rewarding supporters with fertile farmsseized from whites -- although many are ill-equipped toproperly engage in agriculture.
The official Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying only42 percent of the land was under full use and renewing threatsto re-possess farms that were not being properly used in acountry suffering food shortages and economic collapse.
(Additional reporting by Cris Chinaka; Editing by MatthewTostevin)
