Harare, Zimbabwe, Jun 5, 2008 / 16:16 pm
A group of British and American diplomats traveling to a meeting with the Zimbabwe opposition was stopped at a roadblock and attacked by both police and President Robert Mugabe’s “war veterans” in Zimbabwe on Thursday. The diplomats were held at gunpoint for several hours after the incident, which has provoked international outcry.
Five American and four British diplomats left Harare on Thursday morning in a three-vehicle convoy to meet with activists from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the town of Bindura, The Times Online reports.
The house in which they were meeting was surrounded by police, who told the diplomats to report to a local police station.
The diplomats apparently refused and drove away. Soon afterwards, their convoy was blocked by an unmarked truck manned by war veterans loyal to President Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.