Lawyers demanded access to Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday after his arrest, along with dozens of supporters, when riot police crushed an anti-government demonstration in Harare at the weekend.

And as Tsvangirai supporters expressed fears for the Movement for Democratic Change leader's welfare, the US warned Mugabe's government to ensure that those arrested came to no harm. The MDC leader has not been allowed to see either legal representatives or medics since he was arrested close to the scene of the protest against President Robert Mugabe. "We have information that he was beaten up ... (but) the police wouldn't let us see him last (Sunday) night," Tsvangirai's chief lawyer Alec Muchadehama is quoted as saying in a report on the Mail & Guardian Online site. "Even this morning (Monday) we have been trying to gain access to him. Now we have an urgent chamber application in the High Court to seek their release." Apart from Tsvangirai, a host of other senior opposition figures were detained in police sweeps on Sunday, including four MDC lawmakers and Lovemore Madhuku, head of the National Constitutional Assembly. The arrests came amid a police crackdown on the demonstration which was to have taken place on Sunday afternoon. The Save Zimbabwe Campaign ˆ a coalition of rights groups, opposition and church activists ˆ had billed the gathering as a prayer meeting in a bid to circumvent a recent ban on political rallies. However the police cordoned off the area and rounded up activists. National police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzujena said Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, leader of a smaller MDC faction, were arrested as they were "going around inciting people to come and indulge in violent activities". Bvudzujena also confirmed that police had shot dead an MDC activist. The MDC condemned the killing in a report on the News24 site, saying it was a sign of panic by the embattled government of Mugabe who is presiding over an economic meltdown characterised by four-figure inflation with the majority of the population living below the poverty threshold.
Full report on the News24 site
Full Mail & Guardian Online report

The accelerating economic collapse is putting pressure on its neighbours to end their inaction over the crisis, says a report in The Mercury. Analysts say Zimbabwe is now a real threat to regional economic stability and has raised the spectre of frightening bloodshed. Political analysts say the speed and severity of Zimbabwe's downward spiral - and President Robert Mugabe's new plan to extend his term by another two years to 2010 - may now finally force action. The influential International Crisis Group (ICG) has compared the situation in Zimbabwe to the final months of former Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko, who was driven from power in 1997 after a chaotic and bloody Congolese civil war. The think tank said in a report that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and, importantly, South Africa were under pressure to get involved. The SADC has appointed Namibia, Tanzania and Lesotho to initiate a Zimbabwe policy, spurring new hopes for results.'
Full report on The Mercury site

Zimbabwe's Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu has dismissed as a 'grandiose flight of imagination' claims by the ICG that Mugabe's grip on the country was being challenged and could result in political change by next year, says a report on the IoL site. Ndlovu said the ICG was guilty of more than political hallucination. 'No one within its (the ruling party's) ranks is poised to betray the national liberation legacy that binds the Zanu-PF government with the masses,' Ndlovu said, in a reference to the 1970s war for independence from white minority rule in which Mugabe and senior party officials fought. The Minister insisted that the government of Mugabe - in power since 1980 - had always been people-centred.
Full report on the IoL site

Nonetheless the Zimbabwe Government has cancelled leave for police and army officers and put them on alert to quell protests as the political temperature escalates, according to a report on the IoL site. In a memorandum to all police stations Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri said, 'All police officers granted leave should return to their respective stations with immediate effect …The dress order of the day will be full riot gear until further notice and those members who remain at stations should be alert for urgent calls of action.' In a separate memo, the Deputy Police Commissioner for Human Resources, Barbara Mandizha, ordered police stations around the country to compile lists of 'able-bodied' officers for immediate transfer to Harare and Bulawayo. 'No excuses should be entertained as this is a national call,' she said.
Full report on the IoL site

South African President Thabo Mbeki seems to have renewed efforts to help resolve the meltdown. Another report on the IoL site says he spoke to President Robert Mugabe in Accra, Ghana, last week. Mbeki is understood to have been eager to re-engage Mugabe over Zimbabwe's worsening human rights issues. A Zimbabwean Government official said his understanding was that Mbeki had been eager to meet Mugabe over 'what he perceives as problems in Zimbabwe'. Mbeki has faced criticism for having 'abandoned' Zimbabwe while he focuses on resolving conflicts in more far-flung areas. There was also an uncharacteristic statement by Zambia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Mundia Sikatana, urging Southern African countries to stop pretending that all was well in Zimbabwe. Sikatana said SADC leaders must press Mugabe to accept dialogue to resolve the country's crisis
Full report on the IoL site