Zimbabwe’s foreign minister told Western diplomats on Monday they would be expelled if they gave financial or diplomatic support to government opponents.
Pressuring diplomats would make it even harder for the international community to keep tabs on a government accused of repressing its people and ruining its economy — the Zimbabwean government prevented opponents from leaving the country over the weekend and has long severely restricted the press.
A diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said United States ambassador Christopher Dell, an outspoken critic of Zimbabwe’s human rights record, walked out of a meeting at which the warning to diplomats was delivered after Foreign Minister Simearashe Mbengegwi said he would not respond to any questions.
The foreign minister, acting on instructions from President Robert Mugabe, told the Western diplomats that the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic behaviour prohibited foreign embassies from involving themselves in the internal affairs of the host nation.
He said Zimbabwe would not hesitate to use provisions allowing them to expel diplomats.
The foreign minister also said they had gone too far, accusing them of offering food and water to opposition activists jailed last week.
Opposition activists, including main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, alleged they were beaten savagely by police after their arrest at a prayer meeting.
Meanwhile, government opponents said on Monday that the government forced the family of an opposition militant shot dead last week by police to bury him at their rural home in order to avoid demonstrations at a planned ceremony in the capital.
The government insisted, however, that Gift Tandare — killed as police disbanded a prayer meeting organised by Zimbabwe’s political opposition — was buried in the countryside at the family’s request and that the state assisted with the funeral arrangements and expenses.
Opposition spokesperson Eliphas Mokunoweshure called the government explanation ”nonsense”.
Members of the opposition said the Tandare family was coerced by state intelligence agents into holding the funeral in the Mount Darwin district, north-east of Harare.
State television said most of the funeral expenses were paid by the ruling party lawmaker for Mount Darwni, Saviour Kasukuwere, a wealthy businessman. It denied Tandare’s body had been seized from a funeral home.
Hundreds of mourners and democracy activists have gathered at Tandare’s home in the Harare township of Glen View since his death March 11 when police crushed the prayer meeting. On March 13, police tried to quell mourners blocking streets and beating drums around Tandare’s home in the township, an opposition stronghold.
Two were injured by police gunfire.
Nelson Chamisa, an aide to Tsvangirai, was hospitalised after suffering suspected head fractures following being assaulted on Sunday at Harare International Airport by suspected state agents using iron bars. He was due to leave to attend a meeting of African, Caribbean and European parliamentarians in Brussels, Belgium, members of the Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change said.
The opposition appealed on Sunday to Belgium to deny government delegates entry to the Brussels meeting.
Glenys Kinnock, chairperson of the European Union delegation to the Brussels meeting, said three lower-level officials of Zimbabwe’s ruling party were expected in Brussels later on Monday for the meeting.
They were not on a travel-ban list of top officials drawn up to punish Zimbabwe for its human rights record, but would be allowed only to attend meeting sessions, not to enter the EU Parliament premises.
The violence in Zimbabwe ”will have an enormous negative impact on the meetings”, Kinnock said, adding it was ”completely unacceptable” for the government delegation to have proceeded to Belgium knowing Chamisa had been beaten.
The assault of Chamisa follows the re-arrests at the airport on Saturday of three opposition activists who were allegedly assaulted along with Tsvangirai and Chamisa when police broke up the March 11 prayer meeting.
Grace Kwinje and Sekai Holland, among the most severely injured March 11, were prevented from boarding an air ambulance to receive medical care in South Africa, and Arthur Mutambara, leader of an opposition faction, was later arrested at the airport.
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said they were prevented from leaving because a court case was pending against the activists on accusations of incitement to violence.
Mugabe accused the opposition of being terrorists supported by Britain and the West, and Tsvangirai said the crisis in Zimbabwe had reached a ”tipping point”.
The latest violence has drawn new attention to a deteriorating situation in the Southern African country, where the increasingly autocratic Mugabe is blamed by opponents for repression, corruption, acute food shortages and inflation of over 1 700% — the highest in the world.
Mugabe (83) has rejected the international condemnation following the arrests and alleged beatings. The president accused the opposition party of resorting to violence sponsored by former colonial power Britain and other Western allies to oust his government, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
”We have given too much room to mischief-makers and shameless stooges of the West. Let them and their masters know that we shall brook none of their lawless behaviour,” Mugabe was quoted as saying in the state Sunday Mail. — Sapa-AP