Mugabe guards 'held US envoy'

[cal04]

ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe's guards briefly detained the US ambassador to Zimbabwe after he entered a restricted security zone near the African leader's residence, state television reported overnight. The station said US envoy Christopher Dell was held by the Presidential Guard on Monday after he entered the restricted zone at the National Botanic Gardens near Mr Mugabe's official Harare residence, ignoring "no entry" signs.

A US State Department official said the department was looking into reports of an incident involving the ambassador and was trying to ascertain exact details before commenting further. Zimbabwe's government and US embassy officials in Harare could not be reached for comment. State television said Zimbabwe's Foreign Affairs Ministry had written to the US over what it called "a calculated disregard of the rules governing relations between states ... clearly intended to provoke an unwarranted diplomatic incident".


It quoted a defence forces spokesman as saying individuals who entered restricted zones risked being shot and "the American diplomat had the men on duty to thank for their tolerance and restraint in executing their duty". Relations between the US and Zimbabwe have soured in recent years, with Washington accusing Mr Mugabe's government of rigging parliamentary and presidential elections since 2000 and human rights abuses.

Last month a senior US official said President George W Bush's administration planned to slap tough sanctions barring Mr Mugabe, members of his government and their extended families from travelling to the US. Mr Mugabe said the US, like several other western countries, was bitter over his forcible redistribution of white-owned farms among blacks and had helped sabotage Zimbawe's economy in retaliation. He has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16916141%255E1702,00.html

[LiberalVoice]

1. Spying?

This sounds fishy.

[emad]

2. BBC reporting:

SNIP:
A Zimbabwe presidential spokesman said Mr Dell was lucky to be alive.

Zimbabwe's foreign ministry said Mr Dell had shown "flagrant disregard" for Zimbabwe's security laws.

'Flagrant disregard'

"The American ambassador must consider himself very lucky that he is dealing with a professional army that the Zimbabwean national army is," presidential spokesman George Charamba told the state-run Herald newspaper.

Such action... was clearly intended to provoke an unwarranted diplomatic incident

Foreign ministry statement

"Elsewhere, and definitely in America, he would have been a dead man."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4341154.stm

[LatinoSocialist]

3. what is he...007 infiltrating a third world government palace?

What the hell is up with this two-bit Ambassador? If he got appointed to Zimbabwe, he must not be much.

[noonwitch]

4. It's difficult to sort out when both sides are so untrustworthy

Mugabe is a brutal dictator. He cannot be trusted.
Bush appointees are frequently idiots. They can't be trusted either. I wonder if Mr. Dell did beer bongs with Bush when they were at Yale or something like that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. He's a career diplomat since 1981

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/6653.htm