HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) — Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been released after police detained him at his party headquarters, police said on Wednesday.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said Tsvangirai, who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had not been arrested. Ten other MDC officials were arrested, however, on suspicion of being connected with a spate of petrol bombings.
The MDC said heavily armed riot police had stormed the MDC’s headquarters and detained Tsvangirai on Wednesday as African leaders gathered in Tanzania to debate Zimbabwe’s escalating political crisis.
The arrests brought immediate condemnation from Britain, the former colonial power, and from the European Union.
Police said they had no information on the arrests, but confirmed officers were looking for people connected to a string of petrol bomb attacks which President Robert Mugabe says are part of an opposition terror campaign to drive him from power.
The MDC said that before the arrests, Tsvanigirai was going to hold a news conference “on the escalating and systemic campaign of violence and intimidation” by Mugabe’s government.
Government sources say expect more arrests
Government sources said more people were likely to be arrested in the coming days, including opposition politicians and journalists the authorities accuse of trying to incite a military coup against Mugabe.
“Some people have just gone too far, talking and writing recklessly and they are going to be held to account,” one source said.
The raid increased pressure on African leaders to use a special summit beginning in Tanzania on Wednesday to censure Mugabe, who has faced a firestorm of criticism for violently cracking down on opponents of his 27-year rule.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett was among the first to criticize the latest arrests, saying the government appeared determined to intimidate.
“I strongly urge Mugabe and the Zimbabwean regime to heed the calls made by so many of the international community and their African neighbors to stop the oppression of the Zimbabwean people and respect their human rights,” she said in a statement.( Watch Mugabe claim “police have the right to bash” 
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European Union president Germany said it was “deeply concerned” at the arrests while the European Parliament said it was time to end the “brutality” in Zimbabwe.
“The Southern African community has to react,” said Glenys Kinnock, who chairs the joint EU-Africa, Caribbean, Pacific parliamentary assembly.
Political observers agree that the special two-day Tanzania summit will be a test for the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC), accused in some quarters of not flexing its muscle against Mugabe’s government.
Analysts doubt African neighbors will take tough line
But despite the latest crackdown, political analysts said Mugabe’s regional colleagues were unlikely to follow Western calls for a tougher line — at least publicly.
“I don’t think there is going to be the kind of public condemnation that some Western countries are calling for, and I am sure Mugabe will be happy with that,” said Eldred Masunungure, a political science professor at Harare’s University of Zimbabwe.
In South Africa, the parliament held a snap debate on Zimbabwe where opposition parties demanded that President Thabo Mbeki’s government take a stronger line on Mugabe, a man still regarded as a liberation hero by many Africans.
“The goodwill which he earned and deserved has been dissipated by the cruelty, the vindictiveness and the inhumanity he has shown. This man is no longer a democrat,” said Douglas Gibson of the official opposition Democratic Alliance.
South African Deputy Foreign Minister Sue van der Merwe said the only way forward was through dialogue.
Before heading to Tanzania, Mugabe attended a meeting of his ruling ZANU-PF party’s politburo, which local media has speculated could discuss whether to back his bid for an extended presidential term despite the country’s gathering problems.
Mugabe, 83, has suggesting moving presidential elections back to 2010 — giving him two more years in office — or simply standing as the ZANU-PF candidate for another six year term if polls are held as scheduled next year.
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