More arrests as Zimbabwe's opposition leader prepares return

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

HARARE (AFP) — Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government intensified a crackdown against its political opponents Monday, as the leader of the opposition prepared to return home to contest a run-off election.

Journalists, union leaders and hundreds of political activists have been arrested since general elections in March that were lost by the ruling party, but Monday brought news of the first lawmaker to be taken into police custody.

Heya Shoko, a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) parliamentarian who won a seat in Masvingo province formerly held by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, was arrested in connection with post-election violence in his constituency, a colleague said.

"I was with him in town when three detectives ... took him away saying it was in...