Morgan Tsvangirai 's lawyer arrested.

Innocent Chagonda was arrested on Thursday for simply demanding the release of a helicopter hired by Morgan Tsvangirai for his presidential campaign, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and another lawyer said.

The helicopter had been confiscated by police and the pilot, a South African national, was detained on March 25 for alleged fraud and immigration transgressions. He spent nine days behind bars before being freed.

"As a party we feel this is a sustained effort on the part of the authorities against people who assist the MDC," spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

"This is an onslaught which is not only happening in the rural areas, but even in the civil service as people who are perceived MDC supporters are being intimidated."

Zimbabwe is still awaiting the result of the presidential election on March 29. Mr Tsvangirai claims outright victory, but Mr Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) says there must be a run-off.

The opposition on Thursday ruled out Mr Tsvangirai's participation in any second-round vote, accusing Mr Mugabe and his regime of having launched a campaign of intimidation that would affect the true democratic result.

Farmers evicted from Zim

April 09, 2008, 08:00

At least 60 white farmers have reportedly been evicted from their farms in Zimbabwe since the weekend after elections more than ten days ago. War veterans were moving on to white-owned farms. There are about 500 white farmers still operating in Zimbabwe after the government's controversial land reform programme in 2000.

Beginning in 2000, Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president began an effort to redistribute land from white holders (predominantly large farms) to 250 000 black Zimbabweans. In 2005, the government, led by central bank governor Gideon Gono, started making overtures that white farmers could come back. There were 400 to 500 still left in the country, but much of the land that had been confiscated was no longer productive. In January 2007, some white farmers signed long term leases but the government reversed course again and started demanding that all remaining white farmers leave the country or face jail.

Fear now grips white farmers in parts of Zimbabwe that recently witnessed fresh farm occupations by so-called war veterans. This follows statements by the war veteran’s leadership that they would defend the country against what they consider an invasion of the land by white people. Groups of people claiming to be war veterans have reportedly invaded several farms in Masvingo province over the past few days.

President of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmer's Union, Trevor Gifford says: "It is a process of intimidation and retribution - those people who have been invading the farms are doing it on the instructions of their superiors - it is state sponsored - and the district and provincial party offices are involved in collecting people - paying them to invade these farms."

South African leader hits out at Zimbabwe's results delay

SOUTH Africa's governing ANC leader Jacob Zuma has criticised the delay in publishing the results of Zimbabwe's presidential elections held 11 days ago.

Mr Zuma said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) should have announced the results by now.

Zimbabwe's MDC opposition is taking legal action to get the results, but after days of delay, the High Court in Harare has only now begun considering the MDC's request for the immediate release of the election results.

Mr Zuma said Zimbabwe's election had become an international issue, and admitted it did not augur well to keep Zimbabwe and the rest of the world in suspense over the election results.

His comments were in stark contrast to those of his rival in South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki, who last weekend called the situation "manageable". On Monday, Mr Zuma met Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, when he visited Johannesburg for the day.

Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party is trying to persuade Zimbabwe's neighbours to take a more public stand, and said there had been a deafening silence in the region over the bloodshed in Zimbabwe.