Zimbabwean police raid MDC party's offices

October 26, 2009 According to the Zimbabwean finance minister, a building belonging to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party was raided by police on Friday. The police had reportedly been searching for weapons.

The MDC secretary-general, Tendai Biti, said that the house, located in a suburb of Zimbabwe's capital Harare, was "ransacked" by several dozen armed policemen after dark on Friday. One of the rooms in the building had been searched, and police confiscated what Biti called "valuable party documents".

The secretary-general accused President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party of being behind the raid, wanting the country's unity government to fail, describing it as "provocation". "They are behind this attack. Our decision of pulling out of the inclusive government infuriated ZANU-PF and this is the price we now pay for that decision," he said.

The police have not yet released a statement regarding the raid.

Tsvangirai and his MDC party had pulled out of the coalition government last week, accusing Mugabe’s party of not complying with the unity government deal made last year, and oppressing opponents. Mugabe, however, dismissed the boycott, calling it a “non-event”, and said that his party would not alter its plans or agree to the MDC's demands.