Mugabe rounds up opposition, observers
Zimbabwe police in election raids
BBC news 25/4/2008
Riot police in Zimbabwe have carried out raids on headquarters of independent poll monitors and the opposition MDC ... vote-counting material was taken from the MDC office and activists hiding there were arrested. It was not clear whether anything was taken from the office of the monitors, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network. But the group said it feared the authorities wanted to hide evidence of an MDC win in last month's poll ... Witnesses at the MDC raid said at least 100 opposition supporters who had been taking refuge from the authorities in its Harvest House headquarters had been arrested ... activists had been fleeing political violence. "They took everyone in the building, including those who had come just to seek medical care. They are trying to destroy evidence of their brutality," Mr Chamisa said ... An anonymous source at the Zimbabwe Election Support Network said police had arrived at the group's headquarters shortly after the MDC raid and were searching through files and documents. The network is considered the only reliable source of information about the 29 March elections ... The electoral commission says it cannot release the presidential results until it completes a recount in 23 of the 210 constituencies. Three recounts of the parliamentary results have been completed - all confirmed the original results. President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party lost control of parliament for the first time since independence in 1980 ... Meanwhile, the Herald newspaper has condemned Zimbabwe's neighbours as "myopic stooges" for refusing to let a cargo of Chinese weapons cross their territory to landlocked Zimbabwe. "Zimbabwe is... under attack from the former coloniser and its allies. As such, Zimbabwe probably needs to arm itself more than any other country in Africa ...
BBC news 25/4/2008
Riot police in Zimbabwe have carried out raids on headquarters of independent poll monitors and the opposition MDC ... vote-counting material was taken from the MDC office and activists hiding there were arrested. It was not clear whether anything was taken from the office of the monitors, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network. But the group said it feared the authorities wanted to hide evidence of an MDC win in last month's poll ... Witnesses at the MDC raid said at least 100 opposition supporters who had been taking refuge from the authorities in its Harvest House headquarters had been arrested ... activists had been fleeing political violence. "They took everyone in the building, including those who had come just to seek medical care. They are trying to destroy evidence of their brutality," Mr Chamisa said ... An anonymous source at the Zimbabwe Election Support Network said police had arrived at the group's headquarters shortly after the MDC raid and were searching through files and documents. The network is considered the only reliable source of information about the 29 March elections ... The electoral commission says it cannot release the presidential results until it completes a recount in 23 of the 210 constituencies. Three recounts of the parliamentary results have been completed - all confirmed the original results. President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party lost control of parliament for the first time since independence in 1980 ... Meanwhile, the Herald newspaper has condemned Zimbabwe's neighbours as "myopic stooges" for refusing to let a cargo of Chinese weapons cross their territory to landlocked Zimbabwe. "Zimbabwe is... under attack from the former coloniser and its allies. As such, Zimbabwe probably needs to arm itself more than any other country in Africa ...