Others approaching were turned back by armed militants.
The BBC correspondent in Harare, Grant Ferrett, says
the opposition's room for manoeuvre is limited.
He says the government might welcome
a call for a strike or for international sanctions - as Mr Mugabe thrives on
confrontation.
Mr Mugabe has firmly backed the land
invasions, saying they will not end until farmers hand over nearly 850 farms
which the government tried and failed to acquire nearly two years ago.
Zimbabwe Opposition to Seek Power in
Poll
By Darren Schuettler
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai said on Saturday his party would take part in a upcoming
parliamentary election, but called for unspecified ''mass action'' against the
government's violent campaign tactics.
``The MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) has the
resolve to participate in and win the forthcoming parliamentary election,'' he
told reporters after an emergency meeting of party leaders.
In London, a British official denounced a new
government plan to strip whites with hereditary links to Britain of their
Zimbabwean nationality weeks before parliamentary elections.
While MDC officials met to discuss their election
strategy, police armed with automatic rifles prevented an opposition rally for
peace at a sports complex in central Harare.
Police turned away supporters of the National
Constitutional Assembly, a coalition of civic, church and opposition groups.
``The police told everyone coming to disperse and
did disperse some...They have been attacked by police. The government here is
determined to crush any kind of public protest,'' an opposition leader, Lovemore
Madhuku, told reporters.
Reporters on the scene saw groups turned away at
gunpoint, but did not witness any assaults.
The police action came barely 24 hours after
President Robert Mugabe had called for the first time on Friday for an end to
violence against white farmers.
Mugabe denounced the violence that has killed at
least 19 people, including three white farmers, and announced the formation of a
land commission including government officials, farmers and the war veterans who
have occupied hundreds of white-owned farms since February.
But he said the veterans leading the farm invasions
would not leave until land redistribution had started. Until now the president
has strongly supported the land invasions and police have done little to
intervene.
Tsvangirai blamed Mugabe for the escalating
violence, adding: ``Given the present conditions a free and fair election is
almost impossible.''
``As a party, we are endorsing, we are recommending
to all the affiliates of those aligned to MDC that, given the state of violence,
we need to embark on mass action.''
He declined to say what form of action the party
was considering, saying he would consult civic groups and other opposition
parties from Monday.
Parliamentary elections are expected some time in
June.
Another Farmer Mourned
The farming community held a private memorial
service on Saturday for Alan Dunn, who was fatally beaten by suspected war
veterans near Beatrice, south of Harare, last Sunday.
Catholic priest David Gibbs told about 400 mourners
spilling out of the small Harare church into surrounding gardens that Dunn had
``sacrificed himself for what he believed in.''
``We are honored knowing that somewhere in the
future, what Alan has sacrificed will bear fruit,'' the priest said.
Britain increased the pressure on Mugabe on Friday
by extending a ban on new applications for arms exports to Zimbabwe to a total
arms embargo, including a prohibition on the sale of spare parts to the defense
force.
The partly state-owned Herald newspaper said on
Saturday the government would order about 86,000 white Zimbabweans who have
applied for British citizenship since the land crisis began to surrender their
Zimbabwean passports.
Zimbabwe has not allowed dual nationality since
1985, but Britain has never recognized the renunciation of rights to British
nationality by Zimbabweans with links to London.
The Herald quoted a statement from the Zimbabwe
Citizenship Office saying: ``The British nationals ineffectively renounced
British citizenship in the form and manner prescribed by the Zimbabwe
Citizenship Law.
``They are, therefore, deemed residents and not
citizens of Zimbabwe. These people who have not renounced, must surrender all
Zimbabwe passports because they are now citizens of the United Kingdom,'' the
statement said.
``This kind of thing which raises tension is
unhelpful. It is a distraction from the main issue which is free and fair
elections,'' a Foreign Office official told Reuters from London.
The opposition said the new move was intended to
intimidate voters and, possibly, to reduce the number of white voters.
Britain earlier this year said it would take in
about 20,000 white Zimbabweans with hereditary claims to British
nationality.