UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to release detained activists and said such a move would help unlock international humanitarian support.
Many of the activists still held in Zimbabwe are members of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, the long-time opposition party which entered a unity government with Mr Mugabe earlier this month.
One of the most prominent is senior MDC official Roy Bennett, who remains in detention pending an appeal by state lawyers against the high court's granting of bail yesterday.
"It would be a welcome gesture for the leader of Zimbabwe to embrace all different opinions and leaders in the country by releasing all these detained people," Mr Ban said.
"I hope that he would listen to the expectations of the international community by releasing them all as soon as possible," he said after talks in South Africa with President Kgalema Motlanthe.
Mr Bennett, a white farmer who lost his farm under Mr Mugabe's land seizures, had been earmarked to become deputy agriculture minister. He faces charges, which he denies, of plotting terrorism, insurgency and banditry.
Zimbabwe's new government urgently needs to tackle an economic meltdown that has led to the world's highest inflation, food shortages and a cholera epidemic that has killed 3,877 people and infected over 83,000 others.
Mr Tsvangirai said last week it would cost as much as $5 billion to repair the economy.
"The economic situation is very dire and the humanitarian situation is also very worrisome," Mr Ban said.
Reuters