'This was a message for us'
2008-05-13 19:43
Special Report
A new team of SA mediators have held their first talks with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe in a fresh bid to ease tensions within the strained unity government, a report says.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he doesn't expect the US sanctions on his country to be lifted soon.
Mvurwi ? The US embassy said on Tuesday that it believes the attempt by Zimbabwean police to prevent them from leaving a hospital in Mvurwi where they visited victims of post-election violence "was a message to not expose... the brutality".
"I can only speculate that it was just a message for us not to go and expose this. Obviously they didn't want us to see the brutality ... happening in the rural areas," US embassy spokesperson Paul Engelstad told reporters.
This was after Ambassador James McGee and four colleagues tried unsuccessfully to tour a hospital in Mvurwi, around 80 kilometres north of Harare, without prior approval and then found their exit blocked by four armed police.
A stand-off lasting around 10 minutes ensued before McGee strode forward and opened the gates to leave the government hospital himself.
McGee, who travelled to the countryside with fellow diplomats from Britain, the Netherlands, Japan and the European Union, called it "a minor, very minor misunderstanding" with a security officer.
Later as the convoy left for the capital, it was detained at a roadblock for almost an hour where police asked for a diplomatic clearance note that allows them to travel 35 kilometres outside the capital.
After being rebuffed at the first hospital, the convoy travelled to visit another, where they were able to spend 30 minutes touring wards and visiting victims of violence.
"I think it is absolutely urgent that the entire world knows what's happening in Zimbabwe," McGee said.
"The (Zimbabwe) government has said 'present us with proof of what is happening' ... now we have concrete proof of what is happening," he added.
British ambassador to the country, Andrew Pockock, said the violence was "pretty well organised, well calculated and very disturbing".
"This an effort to change the voting demography in Zimbabwe either by beating people and intimidating them or displacing them ... so they don't vote," he said.
- AFP