Zimbabwe police raid opposition offices

HARARE, Zimbabwe-[[[[Police raided offices of the main opposition party and detained foreign journalists Thursday in an ominous sign that President Robert Mugabe might turn to intimidation and violence in trying to stave off an electoral threat to his 28-year rule.]]]]Earlier, Mugabe apparently launched his campaign for an expected run-off presidential ballot even before the official results of Saturday's election were announced, with state media portraying the opposition as divided and controlled by former colonial ruler Britain.Five days after the vote, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission still had not released results on presidential election despite increasing international pressure, including from former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who recently mediated an end to Kenya's postelection violence. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change already asserted its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the presidency outright, but said it was prepared to compete in any run-off.The police raids came a day after official results showed Mugabe's party had lost control of parliament's 210-member lower house. The election commission was slow on the 60 elected seats in the Senate, releasing the first returns late Thursday that gave five seats each to the opposition and ruling party.MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said hotel rooms used as offices by the opposition at one of Harare's main hotels were ransacked by police during the raids.[[[["Mugabe has started a crackdown," Biti told The Associated Press. "It is quite clear he has unleashed a war."Biti said the raid at the Meikles Hotel targeted "certain people ... including myself." He said Tsvangirai was "safe" but had canceled plans for a news conference.In a further signal of the government's hardening mood, heavily armed riot police surrounded and entered a Harare hotel housing foreign correspondents and took several away, said a man answering the telephone at the hotel. Eight journalists were staying at the York Lodge.Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, said the Times correspondent Barry Bearak was one of those taken into custody. "We do not know where he is being held, or what, if any, charges have been made against him," Keller said.The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm over the detentions and called for the reporters' immediate release. "It is imperative that all journalists, foreign and domestic, be allowed to work freely," said Joel Simon, the group's executive director.]]]]Mugabe has ruled since his guerrilla army helped force an end to white minority rule and bring about an independent Zimbabwe in 1980, but his popularity has been battered by an economic freefall that followed the often-violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms in 2000....
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