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United States wants UN action against Mugabe
Stephen Kaufman, U.S Department of State
June 05, 2008

http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2008/June/20080605170522esnamfuak0.8860895.html?CP.rss=true

Washington -- The bad behavior of the Zimbabwean government, including its recent abuse of diplomats, has prompted the United States to seek UN action.

The Bush administration said June 5 that the detention of American and British diplomats by Zimbabwean forces, and the beating of a U.S. Embassy driver is "absolutely outrageous behavior," and said that along with protests to President Robert Mugabe's government in Harare and at the UN Conference on Food Security in Rome, the United States is raising the issue with the UN Security Council.

The incident, which occurred 40 kilometers outside Harare, was "not a random occurrence," and "is an example of the fact that this government doesn't know any bounds. It flouted all international convention, as well as the protections accorded to diplomats accredited to their country," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

The U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, said the convoy of two U.S. Embassy vehicles and a British Embassy vehicle was stopped by a group of 40 armed people at a police roadblock while on the way to check on reports of recent violence. The armed group included members of the Zimbabwean army, as well as intelligence and retired military personnel.

"The police put up a roadblock, stopped the vehicles, slashed the tires, reached in and grabbed the telephones from my personnel," McGee told CNN June 5.

"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," he said.

McCormack added that the driver of one of the U.S. vehicles was beaten by the crowd, and that the incident "is a taste of the kind of oppression and violence that this government is willing to use against its own people."

The spokesman said the embassy vehicles had been clearly marked and that Zimbabwe's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been informed in advance of the trip. He added that Zimbabwe's claim that vehicles are restricted to a 40 kilometer travel limit is "apparently . . . fictitious," and that Zimbabwe's diplomats in the United States are free to travel wherever they wish.

"[A]ny pretense that the Zimbabweans were surprised by this, I think, is really just a diversion on the part of the Zimbabweans," he said. But despite the U.S. outrage, "it is really nothing compared to what the Zimbabwean people suffer on a daily basis."

McCormack said the tactic of interfering with diplomatic travel is not new, recalling the detention of Ambassador McGee and other diplomats in May. "They're just taking it to new levels, I guess you could say.

UN security council not yet engaged on Zimbabwe
The United States is raising the incident with the U.N. Security Council June 5 to register its "deep concern, unhappiness and distress," and to discuss the Mugabe government's behavior toward its people and its political opposition.

McCormack acknowledged that the issue of Zimbabwe "has previously not been a subject . . . that has gotten very far in terms of Security Council discussions," but the Bush administration hopes to "highlight the fact that the international system is watching events in Zimbabwe and that the actions by the Mugabe government will not go unremarked."

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad said June 5 that consultations had been proposed for later that day to discuss the treatment of the diplomats.

"We will hope that the council can join us in expressing outrage in terms of what has happened," he said.

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