HARARE, 13 May 2008 (IRIN) - The United Nations has asked the government to help it conduct an assessment to evaluate the extent of politically motivated violence, which "could reach crisis levels", warned Agostinho Zacarias, the UN Resident Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator in Zimbabwe.

"We are in touch with the government through the ministry of foreign affairs and they have requested evidence of political violence to justify the joint assessment, and we have done that," Zacarias told IRIN.

"They said they are still considering our request and we hope they will come back to us with a positive answer. We have visited hospitals and spoken to victims of political violence. Our worry is about those who may have failed to make it to the hospitals and are still out there in the countryside."

Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Zimbabwe's information minister said the UN's request to conduct an assessment was "being processed".

Zacarias said the UN Country Team (UNCT) had received requests for humanitarian assistance from victims of violence, allegedly perpetrated by security forces, war veterans, youth militia and supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party. The victims claim the violence is the result of a post-election crackdown and is politically motivated.

President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence in 1980 in elections held in March.

"These reports indicate that some people have died, several hundred others have been hospitalised, while many more have been displaced from their homes and some have lost property that includes livestock, their homes and belongings," said Zacarias.

According to the UN official, there were also reports that opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters were resorting to violence and intimidation.

Violence affecting aid work

The UNCT had evidence of reported cases of violence and intimidation, which had also affected humanitarian work. "The UN humanitarian agencies and their partners in the NGO [non-governmental organisation] community have been experiencing limited access to the affected people due to this heightened tension and localised outbreaks of violence, resulting in the scaling-down of humanitarian programmes, thereby exacerbating the humanitarian situation."

Zacarias said more than half of their NGO partners in the humanitarian field had been unable to visit remote areas in the countryside because government officials had denied them access, or because the employees were worried about their personal safety. The number of internally displaced people had become an issue of concern.

"We also urge the government to set up a clearing house, which will be a safe and secure environment where victims can report cases of politically motivated violence without fear of retribution," he said.

The official daily newspaper, The Herald, reported on 12 May that police had begun dismantling "bases", set up mainly in rural areas and manned primarily by militia and war veterans. These camps have allegedly been used as centres from which surrounding villages have been intimidated, or worse.

Diplomats detained

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe faced a diplomatic crisis after several ambassadors and journalists on a fact-finding mission on the political violence in the volatile Mashonaland Central Province were detained for more than two hours.

The diplomats included James McGee, the US representative in Zimbabwe, Andrew Pocock of Britain, and representatives from Tanzania, Holland and the European Union. Apparently the diplomats had been mistaken for journalists.

A reporter who spoke to IRIN said: "I strongly suspect that the police and soldiers who detained us were youth militia in uniform. They were drunk and naïve. Ambassador McGee convinced them that we were all his employees at the embassy back in Harare [the capital]. There was a light moment when he alleged the other diplomats were his employees."

During the weekend McGee and other Western diplomats toured hospitals and spoke to victims of politically motivated violence. They all claimed they had been tortured by war veterans, ZANU-PF militia, soldiers and police.

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