US demands release of its citizens in Zimbabwe
WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean authorities are still holding two Americans, including a New York Times reporter covering the election, while two other U.S. citizens have been freed, the State Department said on Friday.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey, who declined to release the names of those held because of U.S. Privacy Act concerns, called for their immediate release.
He said U.S. consular officials had visited the Americans, jailed on Thursday. "They have not been mistreated ... as far as I am aware," said Casey. "They were picked up for no legitimate reason."
The New York Times said its reporter, Barry Bearak, who is based in neighboring South Africa, was taken into custody from his hotel in the capital, Harare.
The other American is a senior program officer with the National Democratic Institute, a U.S. organization that monitors elections worldwide and promotes democracy.
The institute said Dileepan Sivapathasundaram was arrested on Thursday at Harare airport.
After more than 22 hours during which authorities said he was not being held, Sivapathasundaram was finally tracked down to Harare's central police station where U.S. diplomats and Zimbabwean human rights lawyers were briefly allowed to see him on Friday, the institute said.
"NDI requests the immediate release of Dileepan Sivapathasundaram, a United States citizen. ... The Institute also calls on the Zimbabwe government to ensure his safety and safe passage from the country," the group said in a statement.
The two released Americans either had left or were shortly due to leave Zimbabwe, said Casey, who gave no other details.
Casey said violence, intimidation and crackdowns following the election, whose results are still not known, would not solve Zimbabwe's problems.
He reiterated strong U.S. concern over the delay in the release of official election results in a poll last Saturday that put President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule in question.
"Every minute and every hour that the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission delays releasing official results, gives everyone that much more reason to suspect that they are doing so not for legitimate vote-counting purposes but possibly to open the door to some abuses of the system or some chicanery," he said.
"Those results must be released now and then have the process moved forward on what those results show." (Reporting by Sue Pleming; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
