Zimbabwe violence 'reaching a crisis'
The UN warned today that post-election violence in Zimbabwe risked reaching a crisis as police stopped a convoy of ambassadors on a tour to investigate attacks on opposition supporters.
Police demanded that the diplomats, including the British and US envoys, who have had tense relations with the government, prove they had official permission to visit hospitals and an alleged torture camp.
US Ambassador James McGee insisted the convoy be allowed through. It passed though after about an hour, led by a police car; it was unclear where it was headed.
Japanese, EU, Dutch and Tanzanian envoys were also in the convoy, which was stopped on the edge of Harare as it was returning to the capital.
The incident happened just after the UN resident representative in Zimbabwe spoke of the escalating tensions in both rural and urban areas.
“There are indications that the level of violence is escalating in all these areas and could reach crisis levels,” Agustino Zacarias said.
He said the violence was preventing UN humanitarian agencies from reaching people in need and had forced them to scale down operations.
Mr Zacarias said “several people” had died, hundreds had been hospitalised and many more displaced by the violence, which was blamed on “some elements of the security forces, youth militias and war veterans and gangs of supporters.”
Mr Zacarias said there was an emerging pattern of violence targeting rural supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Non-governmental organisations and civil rights defenders were being targeted, he said.
