Zimbabwe Opposition Party Official Arrested

[WriteDown]

Source: New York Times

JOHANNESBURG — On the very day Zimbabwe’s new unity government was sworn in, agents of President Robert Mugabe’s security forces on Friday arrested Roy Bennett, the third-highest ranking member of the opposition party that is supposed to share power with Mr. Mugabe.

Authorities picked up Mr. Bennett, the treasurer general of the Movement for Democratic Change and the nominee to become deputy agriculture minister, at a small airport in Harare, likely in connection with accusations dating back years that linked him to a plot to destabilize Mr. Mugabe’s government — accusation he has denied.

Mr. Bennett was about to board a charter flight to Johannesburg, where he has lived in exile in recent years, for a celebration of his 52nd birthday on Monday, his wife Heather said in a telephone interview. He had planned to fly back to Harare to be sworn in on Wednesday along with the other deputy ministers appointed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change.

“I spoke to him just an hour ago,” Mrs. Bennett said Friday afternoon. “Obviously, he’s been worried the whole time he’s been in Zimbabwe, but Morgan had said to him it would be fine to fly out....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/14/world/africa/14zimbabwe.html?_r=1

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Anyone surprised?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Nope, not surprised...

I'm only surprised at how long it took them...:eyes:

[tekisui]

2. I'm just surprised it wasn't Tsvangirai himself.

[cobalt1999]

3. Oh it'll shock a few folks around here.

However, I suspect they are also shocked that the sun comes up each morning.

[abq e streeter]

4. No surprise for those following the situation there

by the way, arrests by the thugs of the Mugabe regime hold a certain personal resonance for Ms. Dugger, the Times reporter. Her husband and co-bureau chief ( Johannesburg bureau)and Pulitzer prize winning reporter Barry Bearak, was arrested and held for several days in Harare last April. Notice the end of the article just says "a reporter" in Harare contributed; they no longer take the chance of putting a name on a byline from there like Mr. Bearak had done. What I guess maybe still shocks me a little is how other African "leaders" continue to turn their eyes away from the disaster Mugabe has visited upon Zimbabwe.