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Zimbabwe Ruling Party Prepares Runoff
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The law requires a runoff within 21 days of the first round. But diplomats in Harare and at the United Nations said Mugabe was planning to declare a 90-day delay to give security forces time to clamp down.
"Mugabe has started a crackdown," Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the main opposition party, told The Associated Press on Thursday after hotel rooms used as offices by the opposition were ransacked by intruders. He said the attackers were either police or agents of the feared Central Intelligence Organization.
Biti said Tsvangirai was "safe."
Tsvangirai tried Thursday to reassure security chiefs who vowed a week ago not to serve anyone but Mugabe, according to a person close to the opposition leader. But an agreed meeting with seven generals was canceled when the officers said that they had been ordered not to attend and that they would be under surveillance, according to the man, wanonymityted anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.
There have been reports of rifts within the highly politicized upper echelons of Zimbabwe's security forces.
New York Times journalist Barry Bearak was among those detained Thursday by heavily armed riot police who surrounded and entered a Harare hotel frequented by foreign reporters, lawyers said. The U.S.-based National Democratic Institute said one of its staff, American Dileepan Sivapathasundaram, was detained by authorities at Harare's airport as he tried to leave the country Thursday.
The government had rejected most foreign journalists' applications to cover the elections and had barred Western election observers.
Lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said the attorney general decided there was no case against the two Americans and a third person who was not identified. However, police decided to hold them. It was not clear whether new charges would be filed.
Casey said four Americans were detained Thursday, but two had been released and were leaving the country. He said one of the two still in custody was a reporter and had been seen by U.S. officials. The other had not been located by U.S. officials, he said.
Casey said the Americans who had been located did not appear to have been mistreated.
They were picked up "for no legitimate reason," he said, but said he could give only limited details because of privacy concerns.
The New York Times quoted Mtetwa as saying that with nighttime temperatures in the 50s, Bearaks cell was unheated and he sleeps on a concrete slab without a blanket.
Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times, called the charge that Mr. Bearak had misrepresented himself as an accredited journalist a "ludicrous assertion."
