Zimbabwe suspends aid groups, detains diplomats

By Nelson Banya

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe indefinitely suspended all work by aid groups on Thursday and police held a group of U.S. and British diplomats for several hours after they visited victims of political violence ahead of a presidential vote.

The United States blamed the seven diplomats' detention firmly on President Robert Mugabe's government, which Washington accuses of trying to intimidate opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's supporters ahead of the June 27 run-off election.

"This is outrageous behavior in the treatment of diplomats," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

Aid work was suspended nearly a week after Mugabe's government banned some aid groups from distributing food, accusing them of campaigning for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in elections held on March 29.

U.S. ambassador James McGee said police stopped the diplomats' vehicles at a roadblock and slashed their tires. Mugabe supporters threatened to set the vehicles ablaze unless the diplomats went with police to a nearby station, he said.

"It's an effort to intimidate us so that we won't go out to the rural areas and then the government can continue to beat the citizens and the supporters of the MDC," Jendayi Frazer, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, said in Cape Town.

The diplomats, also accused by the government of distributing campaign literature for Tsvangirai, were released after several hours.

Authorities accused aid agencies of irregularities.

"A number of NGOs involved in humanitarian operations are breaching the terms and conditions of their registration ...

"I hereby instruct all PVOs (Private Voluntary Organizations)/NGOs to suspend all field operations until further notice," said Nicholas Goche, Minister of Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare.

Goche refused to comment when contacted by Reuters.

SECURITY COUNCIL CONCERN

Zimbabwe's Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga accused the U.S. and British diplomats of distributing campaign material for Tsvangirai's MDC and said they refused to disembark at a roadblock when ordered by police.

"The police simply wanted to get to the bottom of the issue. No force or violence was used," Matonga said.

The U.S. embassy said the attack on the diplomatic convoy took place in Bindura, 80 km (50 miles) north of Harare.