Mugabe 'unleashed a war', says opposition

Zimbabwe's main opposition party says President Robert Mugabe has "unleashed a war" in his bid to stay in power after party offices were raided and foreign journalists detained five days after presidential elections.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had not released official election results by Thursday, despite increasing international pressure. Mugabe was said to be pondering conflicting advice from his advisers on whether to quietly cede power or face a run-off, both humiliating prospects for the 84-year-old president.
Diplomats said Thursday's events indicated he might be considering a third option: declaring a state of emergency and suppressing the opposition.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the presidency outright, but that it is prepared to compete in a run-off.
MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said hotel rooms used as offices by the opposition at a Harare hotel were ransacked Thursday by intruders he believed were either police or agents of the feared Central Intelligence Organisation.
"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," but that Tsvangirai was "safe."
Also Thursday, heavily armed riot police surrounded and entered a Harare hotel housing foreign correspondents and took five away, lawyers said.
Zimbabwe lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said two of the journalists were jailed and would be charged Friday with practicing journalism without licenses. She said the other three were released.
Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, said Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent Barry Bearak was among the reporters initially detained. The identities of the other reporters had not been determined and it was not clear whether Bearak was among the reporters still being held.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm and called for the reporters' immediate release.
The US-based National Democratic Institute said Thursday that one of its staff members was detained by Zimbabwean authorities at Harare's airport as he tried to leave the country. Dileepan Sivapathasundaram, a US citizen, had been working with local groups who were monitoring election monitors, the group said.