US and British diplomats attacked in Zimbabwe

US and British diplomats were attacked as they tried to investigate political violence in Zimbabwe and a US Embassy staffer was beaten, said an embassy spokesman.

US Ambassador James McGee, who was not with the convoy, said Zimbabwean police and military officers and so-called war veterans, a group of often violent supporters of President Robert Mugabe, 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,” McGee said, saying he was in touch with the group by mobile phone.

Five Americans, four Britons and three Zimbabweans were in the three-car convoy, he said.

A British government spokesman later said the British diplomats had been released unharmed. But Downing Street spokesman Michael Ellam did not discuss the status of the American diplomats.

The opposition and rights groups have accused Mugabe of orchestrating violence and intimidation in the run-up to a June 27 presidential runoff.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena denied security agents had threatened the diplomats.

“It’s unfortunate when diplomats behave like criminals and distort information,” Bvudzijena said. “It is a very sad situation.”

Yesterday, Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s opposition presidential candidate resumed campaigning, the morning after he spent nine hours in police detention near the country’s second main city, his party said.

Meanwhile, all aid groups must stop their field work in Zimbabwe on grounds “they are violating the terms of their agreement with the government”, the country’s social welfare minister, Nicholas Goche, said in a memorandum last night.