Two Zimbabwean lawyers detained, says rights group

HARARE, May 5 (Reuters) Two Zimbabwean human rights lawyers have been detained in what appears to be a widening campaign against the opposition, a rights group said today.

An official with the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni had been arrested in Harare yesterday.

''The two of them were taken in yesterday and we understand they are being detained at Harare Central (Police Station) and there is a suggestion they are facing some charges, trumped up charges in our view, of obstructing the course of justice,'' said the official, who declined to be named.

''This, in our view, is part of this whole campaign against those fighting for democratic space, those fighting for human rights and calling for government accountability,'' he added.

Police spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

Muchadehama and Makoni are members of the group Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. They were part of a team of attorneys that represented opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and dozens of other Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials after they were arrested in March and severely assaulted for defying a government ban on rallies.

President Robert Mugabe's government has threatened to react strongly against opposition forces he accuses of trying to overthrow his government on behalf of Zimbabwe's former colonial master Britain.

Mugabe's government last month launched a crackdown on the MDC, accusing it of trying to overthrow it through a ''terrorist campaign'' of petrol bombings. The opposition denies the charge.

Analysts expect the government to step up pressure on all its opponents ahead of general elections next year.

Mugabe, 83, has been in power since white rule ended in 1980 and has been endorsed by ZANU-PF to run again for president in the elections, which the opposition says it might boycott.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF government has threatened to expel Western diplomats he accuses of supporting the opposition, and to ban non-governmental organisations he says are funding opposition politics.

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