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M. Continuo

UK and U.S. staff attacked in Zimbabwe


    By Nelson Banya

    HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean police detained U.S. andBritish diplomats on Thursday, slashing the tyres of their carsafter they visited victims of political violence ahead of apresidential election run-off, the U.S. embassy said.

    The U.S. ambassador blamed the attack on President RobertMugabe's government.

    Former colonial power Britain and the United States accuseMugabe of a campaign of violence and intimidation againstsupporters of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the run-upto the vote.

    The attack took place in Bindura, 80 km (50 miles) north ofHarare, a U.S. embassy spokesman said.

    "Police put up a roadblock, stopped the vehicles, slashedthe tires, reached in and grabbed telephones from my personnel,and the war veterans (Mugabe's supporters) threatened to burnthe vehicles with my people inside unless they got out andaccompanied police to a station nearby," U.S. Ambassador JamesMcGee said in an interview on CNN.

    "We do believe this is coming directly from the top," hesaid.

    Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in a March 29 presidential electionbut failed to win enough votes to avoid a second round.

    The opposition says 65 people have been killed since thefirst round of voting by supporters of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PFparty who want to extend his 28-year rule. Mugabe blames theopposition for the violence.

    Tsvangirai was detained for nine hours on Wednesday butcontinued his campaign on Thursday.

    South Africa said it planned to begin sending electionobservers to Zimbabwe this week as part of a larger missionsent by the Southern African Development Community, adding thatit was essential that the election be fair and transparent.

    Simba Makoni, the ruling party defector who came third inthe first round called on Thursday for the run-off to bescrapped to prevent further bloodshed.

    Makoni won over 8 percent and those who voted for him couldbe crucial in deciding the contest.

    In an indicator of Zimbabwe's rapid economic decline, itsdollar currency plunged to a new low of between 995 million and1.45 billion to the greenback on Thursday from an average 700million at the beginning of the week.

    (Additional reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe in Harare andPaul Simao in Johannesburg; Writing by Marius Bosch; Editing byMatthew Tostevin)