Posted on 02/09/2003 4:05:21 AM PST by Clive
Harare - Three leading lawmakers from Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were arrested on Saturday, the party said.
MDC members of parliament Tendai Biti and Paul Madzore were arrested in a low income suburb of Mabvuku in the capital as they were about to address a rally.
Another deputy, Gabriel Chaibva, who is also the party's shadow minister of local government, was arrested in the northwestern coal mining town of Hwange where he was a attending a seminar with the party's municipal councillors.
Seven MDC legislators have now been arrested so far this year, with Madzore being arrested twice.
"We are not surprised at all by these routine and systematic arrests. They are meant to harass and frustrate our members," said MDC spokesperson Paul Temba Nyathi.
He said the arrest of people and their subsequent release without charge "at the whims and according to the mood of the ... illegitimate government" has become a familiar phenomenon.
The Zimbabwe government has vowed to crack down on anyone it suspects to be involved in or planning to disrupt the 2003 World Cup Cricket matches due to be held here from Monday. - Sapa-AFP
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