Home
Zimbabwe police threaten to beat diplomats
Denmark News.Net
Tuesday 13th May, 2008
Police in Zimbabwe detained a group of Western diplomats for a brief period Tuesday after the ambassadors travelled to rural areas to visit the victims of post-election violence.
The ambassadors of the US, European Union, Britain and Japan travelled to the towns of Mvurwi and Chiweshe, north of Harare, to gather information on attacks on mainly opposition supporters by supporters of President Robert Mugabe.
On the way back to Harare the group was detained for around an hour by armed police, who demanded they produce a diplomatic note explaining their visit at the nearest police station.
One of the group said an intelligence official had threatened to beat him after hearing he and the rest of the group had met with the victims of violence.
Earlier, police had sealed the group briefly inside the grounds of Mvurwi hospital after demanding that a photographer delete his images of battered patients.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington that the detention amounted to harassment and compared it to the regular intimidation of Zimbabwean citizens.
He said: It's indicative of the kind of atmosphere that exists in Zimbabwe right now. If you have foreign diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe who are facing this kind of treatment, you can only imagine, for Zimbabwean citizens what life is like.”
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says 32 of its members have been killed in attacks by pro-Mugabe youth militia and soldiers in revenge for their vote in March 29th presidential elections.
Tsvangirai demanded the cessation of all violence and the deployment of peacekeepers from neighbouring countries as conditions for his participation in a run-off vote.
Since then, Mr Tsvangirai has said that he will take part in a second round of presidential elections.
He has also relaxed his demand for western observers to ensure that the voting proceeds fairly, a demand that President Robert Mugabe had never agreed to.
Mr Tsvangirai says that he will now accept observers from the region.
The opposition leader wants to return as quickly as possible to Zimbabwe, which he left shortly after the elections on 29th March.
The state-controlled Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has yet to give a date for the second round, while shrugging off MDC calls for it to be held by May 23rd.
 Email this story to a friend
Comments on this story
Shashi
05-14-08, 08:33 AM |
Zimbabwe police threaten to beat diplomats
It is a great pity that no matter what mugabe does, big countries wont DO anything. they may SAY something as a show of solidarity. this is exactly where the solidarity or humanity stops.
|
waltky
06-05-08, 03:57 PM |
Uh-oh, time to send the Marines in...
:mad:
U.S., U.K. Diplomats Attacked in Zimbabwe
June 5, 2008 - Diplomats Are Released After Their Convoy Was Attacked by 'War Veterans'
]
U.S. and British diplomats have now been released after their convoy was attacked in Zimbabwe and they were held for over five hours at a roadblock north of the capital. The attack took place 30 kilometers outside of the capital Harare. The diplomatic convoy was stopped by a mob of about 40 people, believed to comprise elements of Zimbabwe’s military, police and the so-called “war vets” who are fiercely loyal to President Robert Mugabe.
Paul Engelstad, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, says a U.S. Embassy staffer was beaten and tires of cars in the convoy were slashed. His was the only injury reported so far. “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," U.S. Ambassador James McGee, who was not in the convoy, told CNN.
U.S. State Department sources told ABC News that five Americans and two local employees of the embassy were held at the road block, along with the British diplomats. Among them were senior diplomats including the top security officer for the U.S. Embassy. The BBC reported that four British diplomats were involved in the incident.The British Foreign Office has summoned Zimbabwe’s ambassador in London to explain the incident, the prime minister’s spokesman said.
McGee, who was pressing Zimbabwean officials for his colleagues' release, told CNN that “we do believe this is coming directly from the top." McGee has clashed with Mugabe’s regime in the past and has been threatened with expulsion. In mid-May, McGee had led a similar convoy that was stopped at a police roadblock. Police eventually let the convoy through, and a patrol car escorted them back to the U.S. Embassy.
More [url:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=5005138&page=1[/url]
See also:
Aid Groups Suspended In Zimbabwe
Jun. 5, 2008 - Zimbabwe Orders Aid Groups To Stop Work
]
Zimbabwe’s social welfare minister says aid groups must stop field work in his country. In a memorandum sent to aid groups late Thursday, the minister, Nicholas Goche, said he had learned that aid groups were violating the terms of their agreement with the government. He did not elaborate in the brief statement.
The statement says all aid and development groups are ordered to “suspend all field operations until further notice."
Earlier this week, the aid organization CARE International said it had been ordered to halt operations pending an investigation of allegations it was campaigning for the opposition in the runup to a June 27 presidential runoff. CARE denies the allegation.
[url:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/05/ap/world/main4158179.shtml[/url]
|
Have your say on this story
|
|
