Mugabe threatens diplomats with expulsion

Zimbabwe's foreign minister summoned western diplomats to a meeting to warn them they would be expelled if they gave financial or diplomatic support to opposition activists.

Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said President Robert Mugabe would not hesitate to kick out any diplomats who interfered in Zimbabwe's domestic politics.

"I summoned the ambassadors, and I told them that Zimbabwe will not allow any interference in its internal affairs and that those who are going to continue funding and supporting this programme will be expelled," he said during a ZTV news bulletin in the local Shona language reported by Reuters.

Diplomats who attended the meeting said the US ambassador, Christopher Dell, a critic of Zimbabwe's human rights abuses, walked out, dismissing the meeting as a "sham" and a "propaganda exercise for the state press", which was filming the event.

The meeting came as the US state department released a statement calling on Mr Mugabe to "allow all Zimbabweans the right to live without fear and to fully participate in the political process".

It said Mr Mugabe would be held "personally responsible" for the arrests and beatings of opposition politicians, and the refusal to allow some to travel for medical treatment.

Dozens of opposition activists, including Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), were beaten after being arrested on their way to a prayer rally last week.

"President Mugabe clearly fears a free and open political debate in his country and is therefore willing to use violence to suppress all those who oppose him. Ultimately, he will be held accountable by the people of Zimbabwe and by the world," the US statement concluded.

In Harare, Mr Mumbengegwi told the diplomats that the Vienna convention prohibited foreign embassies from involving themselves in the internal affairs of a host nation. He said some diplomats had "gone too far" and had offered food and water to opposition activists jailed last week.

"Attending public court proceedings, meeting with members of parliament and travelling through the country, these are well within the bounds of the Vienna convention and are completely normal in most countries," said a diplomatic source in Harare.

"Providing food and water to people who have been brutalised in jail and who were deprived medical care and food, that is an act of human kindness that is entirely defensible.

"Expelling any embassy would only further isolate the Mugabe government and would have serious consequences, even the Mugabe government knows that." Amid growing signs of the repression in Zimbabwe, lawyers reported yesterday that they had been told by police that they could "disappear" or suffer violent attacks if they continued to represent the jailed opposition leaders.

One lawyer, Andrew Makoni, delivered court orders to an assistant police commissioner on Sunday. "He ripped the order in pieces, wadded it into a ball and threw it in my face and warned that if I came back to the police offices I would be arrested and thrown in jail." Another lawyer, Otto Saki, said he received a threatening phone call.

"The caller said if I continued representing opposition figures I would be f----- up." "These threats are not isolated incidents. We are hearing more of these warnings. They are trying to intimidate us," said Mr Saki, of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

Guardian Unlimited