By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean police arrested a topopposition official on Thursday, saying he would be chargedwith treason, and briefly detained opposition leader MorganTsvangirai for the third time this month.
Secretary-General Tendai Biti flew home from South Africaahead of a June 27 presidential election run-off betweenTsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe, who is battling to keephis 28-year hold on power in the ruined state.
Police had sought Biti, the third highest ranking officialin the Movement for Democratic Change, for announcing resultsof the March 29 first round vote prematurely.
"We are charging him with treason and communicatingstatements prejudicial to the state. For the treason charge hefaces the death penalty or life in prison," police spokesmanWayne Bvudzijena said. "He is in police custody and we arestill investigating the matter."
The opposition and human rights groups accuse Mugabe'ssupporters, including the security forces, of arresting andattacking its opponents in a bid to intimidate the oppositionahead of the run-off.
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a March 29 election butfailed to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a secondballot, according to official results. Mugabe's support hasbeen eroded by the economic collapse of the once prosperouscountry.
Tsvangirai was detained for about two hours as he wascampaigning in Kwekwe, 200 km (125 miles) west of Harare. Heresumed his campaign after he was released.
"This is just a deliberate attempt to delay us, it is justharassment," Tsvangirai's spokesman George Sibotshiwe said.
Biti had left Zimbabwe shortly after the poll to galvanisesupport for the opposition within Africa. He said earlier thisweek that he was returning to Zimbabwe to help build democracy.
BLOODSHED
The MDC says ruling ZANU-PF party activists have killed 66opposition supporters since March. Mugabe and his officialsblame the opposition for the violence.
The Southern African Development Community, a grouping of14 nations including Zimbabwe, has sent a team of electionmonitors. Observers from Western nations critical of Mugabe'sgovernment are not being allowed into the country.
Some 400 SADC observers are expected across Zimbabwe in thenext two weeks.
"It is a mammoth task," Tanki Mothae, one of the members ofthe observer mission, said at a press conference in Harare."This is to help the people of Zimbabwe go through thiselection as peacefully as possible."
The political turmoil has compounded an economic crisis.
Inflation has soared to over 165,000 percent, unemploymenthovers around 80 percent and food and fuel shortages arecommonplace. Millions have fled to neighbouring countries insearch of food and work.
Critics blame Zimbabwe's decline on Mugabe's policies,including the seizure of thousands of white-owned farms. Someof the most fertile farms have gone to supporters who wereill-equipped for agriculture.
The official Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying only42 percent of land was being tilled completely and renewingthreats to re-possess farms that were not being properly used.
(Additional reporting by Cris Chinaka; Writing by MariusBosch and Paul Simao; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
