Zimbabwe police raid MDC headquarters

Police raided the headquarters of the political party of Zimbabwe's prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and arrested three staff members this week. The raid was the latest in a series of incidents that have accompanied a crisis in the country's unity government, which united Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai with Zimbabwe's longtime ruler Robert Mugabe in an unlikely power-sharing agreement in 2009. Last week, Tsvangirai said he wants out of the government after police arrested one of his top political allies.

A retired BBC Africa Bureau journalist and chief spokesman for the London-based Zimbabwe Vigil, Dennis Benton told Vatican Radio the political situation in Zimbabwe is rapidly deteriorating. “The military junta know that [incumbent president Robert] Mugabe could leave the scene any moment,” he said (the 87 year-old Mugabe is ill with prostrate cancer and has visited foreign countries for treatment several times over the past year), explaining that the military powers behind the ruling Zanu-PF party hope to force Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) out of the government, so they can call snap elections. “They want [Mugabe] as a figurehead for their election campaign,” explained Benton. “If he holds out, he will be replaced by the army chief shortly after an election. They hope, concluded Benton.

Listen to Chris Altieri's interview with Dennis Benton: