British and US officials held at Zimbabwe roadblock
British and US diplomats were attacked as they tried to investigate political violence in Zimbabwe today in an operation blamed directly on president Robert Mugabe.
The group was held for several hours after being stopped at a roadblock just north of Harare, a spokesman at the US embassy in Harare said.
The attackers beat up a member of the embassy staff 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, a group of fiercely loyal and often violent supporters of President Robert Mugabe, were responsible for what he called an “illegal action” just outside the capital.
He said there was an orchestrated campaign to intimidate diplomats adding: “We do believe this is coming directly from the top.”
He said five Americans, four Britons and three Zimbabweans were in the three-car convoy.
“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,” Mr McGee said.
The opposition and rights groups have accused Mugabe of orchestrating violence and intimidation in the run-up to the June 27 presidential run-off election.
A police spokesman denied security agents had threatened the diplomats, saying instead police were trying to rescue them from a threatening mob.
“It’s unfortunate when diplomats behave like criminals and distort information,” he said. “It is a very sad situation.”
Last month Mr McGee had led a similar convoy that was stopped at a roadblock. Police eventually let them through, and a patrol car escorted them back to the US embassy before disappearing.
At one point during the May incident, a police officer threatened to attack one of Mr McGee’s senior aides.
The officer got into his car and lurched toward Mr McGee after he had demanded the officer’s name.
Meanwhile today Zimbabwe’s opposition presidential candidate resumed campaigning, the morning after he spent nine hours in police detention near the country’s second main city.
Morgan Tsvangirai said that the hours he spent in a Bulawayo police station after being stopped at a roadblock while campaigning demonstrated the lengths to which Mugabe was prepared to go to “try and steal” the run-off.
But a police spokesman claimed officers merely wanted to establish that one of the vehicles in Mr Tsvangirai’s convoy was properly registered. He said police had asked only the driver to accompany them from the roadblock to the station, but others in the party insisted on coming him and waiting while the documents were reviewed.
