Mugabe backers assault US, British diplomatic convoy

Really surprised that this wasn't a bigger story today...A convoy of US and UK diplomats was waylaid on Thursday morning in Zimbabwe by loyalists to President Robert Mugabe. The "War Veterans" (how Mugabe's thugs self-describe themselves, a reference to Zimbabwe's war for independence from Britain) dragged one Zimbabwean staffer from the convoy and beat him, while threatening to burn the rest of the convoy's SUVs - with the US and UK embassy staff inside them. The embassy staffers - five Americans, four Brits and three Zimbabweans who work for the two embassies - were held for six hours before being released.

The group was returning to Harare, the capital, after a tour of some outlying villages. Government officials accused the diplomats of handing out campaign material for Mugabe's challenger in the presidential runoff Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe blamed his loss in the first round of the presidential election not on the food shortages or runaway inflation his policies have caused, but rather on secret British attempts to turn Zimbabwe back into a colony.

Luckily no one in the diplomatic convoy was seriously hurt, but it could have been much worse, and is just the latest example of the government's attempts at intimidation ahead of the June 27th runoff election. Mugabe's government on Thursday also ordered international aid agencies to halt their activities - again claiming that they are campaigning for the opposition.

In the wake of land reforms that seized productive farms from white landowners and gave them to Mugabe's "War Veteran" cronies, agriculture in Zimbabwe has nearly ground to a halt, leaving much of the population dependent on food aid from international relief agencies.