U.S. slams Zimbabwe for "harassment" of diplomats

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States condemned Zimbabwe's government on Tuesday for its "harassment" of the U.S. ambassador and other diplomats questioned by police after visiting post-election violence victims at a hospital.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. ambassador James McGee and diplomats from Britain, the European Union, Japan, the Netherlands and Tanzania, were questioned for about 45 minutes at a roadblock outside of the capital Harare on Tuesday.

"I guess it is harassment," said McCormack of the questioning of the diplomats.

"If on two occasions you're held up for nearly two hours and questioned about what you're doing, by security officials, then, yeah, that's harassment. Sure," he added.

The diplomats were on their way back from visiting a rural hospital to see victims of post-election violence. They were also held up at the hospital and questioned by security officials over their reasons for being there, said McCormack.

"It's indicative of the kind of atmosphere that exists in Zimbabwe right now," said McCormack of the Zimbabwean government's tactics in dealing with the diplomats.

"If you have foreign diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe who are facing this kind of treatment, you can only imagine for Zimbabwean citizens what life is like if they make an effort to speak up, to voice their opinions," he added.

While they were questioned, McCormack said none of the diplomats were physically harmed and nothing had been confiscated by the security officials.

British ambassador to Zimbabwe Andrew Pocock, when asked by Reuters about reports that Western ambassadors had been detained during their tour of the hospital, said: "We are having a little chat with the police. We have not been detained."