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Zimbabwe: US, British diplomats attacked as they tried to investigate political violence
Fri. June 06, 2008 08:48 am.- By Bonny Apunyu. -
(SomaliNet) According to officials, United States and British diplomats have been attacked as they tried to investigate political violence in Zimbabwe and a US embassy staff member was beaten.
The diplomats were released after being held for hours at a roadblock on the outskirts of Harare following a trip to northern Zimbabwe, officials in Washington and London said.
Meawhile, the opposition and rights groups have accused President Robert Mugabe of orchestrating violence and intimidation before a June 27 presidential run-off.
US embassy spokesperon Paul Engelstad said the attackers beat a Zimbabwean US embassy staffer and slashed the tyres of some cars in the convoy.
US ambassador James McGee, who was not with the convoy, told CNN that Zimbabwean police and military officers, and so-called war veterans, were responsible for what he called an "illegal action".
"The war veterans threatened to burn the vehicles with my people inside unless they got out of the vehicles and accompanied the police to a station nearby," he said.
Five Americans, four Britons and three Zimbabweans were in the three-car convoy, he said.
Speaking later in Washington, US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said the diplomats were released after being detained and harassed, calling their experience "absolutely outrageous" and indicative of the "repression and violence" the Zimbabwean government is willing to use against its own people.
McCormack said the US planned to raise the issue at the UN Security Council and directly with Zimbabwean diplomats attending a UN food conference in Rome.
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena denied security agents had threatened the diplomats, saying instead that police were trying to rescue them from a mob.
"It's unfortunate when diplomats behave like criminals and distort information," Bvudzijena said.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's opposition presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, resumed campaigning the morning after he spent nine hours in a police cell.
Tsvangirai on Thursday said the hours he spent at a Bulawayo police station after being stopped at a roadblock showed the lengths to which Mugabe was prepared to go to "try and steal" the run-off.
Also on Thursday, rights activists in Zimbabwe said that alleged Mugabe supporters petrol-bombed an MDC office in the southern province of Masvingo on Wednesday, killing at least two officials.
At the United Nations on Thursday, officials said secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has gained Mugabe's permission to send a high-ranking UN envoy to help the nation try to hold a free and fair run-off.
Ban met Mugabe in Rome earlier this week and "highlighted the need to stop the violence and to deploy neutral international observers", UN deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe said. - Sapa-AP
News Category: Africa
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