WASHINGTON, May 13: Zimbabwean police harassed US and other diplomats when they tried to prevent them from leaving a hospital treating victims of post-election violence, a senior US official said on Tuesday.

“Yes, I guess it is harassment,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters when asked if the way armed police behaved towards US Ambassador James McGee and four colleagues amounted to harassment.

“If on two occasions, you are questioned for nearly two hours by security officials, yes, it is harassment,” McCormack said, adding the incident is “indicative of the kind of atmosphere in Zimbabwe right now.” The diplomats tried unsuccessfully to tour a hospital in Mvurwi, around 80 kilometres north of Harare, without prior approval and then found their exit blocked by four armed police.A stand-off lasting around 10 minutes ensued before McGee strode forward and opened the gates to leave the government hospital himself.

“I can only speculate that it was just a message for us not to go and expose this. Obviously they didn’t want us to see the brutality ... happening in the rural areas,” US embassy spokesman Paul Engelstad told reporters.

McGee, who travelled to the countryside with fellow diplomats from Britain, the Netherlands, Japan and the European Union, called it “a minor, very minor misunderstanding” with a security officer.

Later as the convoy left for the capital, it was detained at a roadblock for almost an hour where police asked for proof the diplomats had followed procedures requiring them to notify the authorities of their travel plans.

“They wanted to check that we had put in a diplomatic note. They asked for our diplomatic note which they were shown,” said the US embassy spokesman.

After being rebuffed at the first hospital, the convoy travelled to visit another, where they were able to spend 30 minutes touring wards and visiting victims of violence.

—AFP