A group of 185 Zimbabwean opposition supporters have been released after being detained last week in a police raid on the party's Harare headquarters, their lawyer said.
The group were all picked up on Friday at the Movement for Democratic Change's offices in downtown Harare as police searched for the alleged perpetrators of arson attacks.
Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe's government ruled out forming a coalition with Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after the country’s ambassador to the UN said such a move was unavoidable.
‘Our priority is to win the presidential election as Zanu-PF, that is our focus right now [but] if there is meant to be any government of national unity it cannot be with Morgan Tsvangirai because he is a sell-out,’ deputy information minister Bright Matonga said.
‘He is an agent of the British. We can never work with people who are not principled.’
Mr Matonga's comments came after Zimbabwe's UN ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku said that the eventual winner of a presidential election, still to be announced a month after polling day, would have to form a national unity government.
‘There is no way anybody can do without the other,’ he said.
UN Security Council discusses Zimbabwe
In New York, the UN Security Council is discussing the growing political vacuum in Zimbabwe today.
While a recount of the parliamentary ballot saw the opposition Movement for Democratic Change maintain its majority over the ruling Zanu-PF, there have been increasing reports of a violent crackdown on opposition activists by Mr Mugabe's regime.
Mr Tsvangirai has called on the UN to help stamp out violence in the country and send a special envoy to investigate.
Ahead of a visit to Tanzania as a part of a series of discussions with regional leaders, Mr Tsvangirai repeated his call for Mr Mugabe to step down.
