Downing Street Says

Asked about the situation in Zimbabwe regarding British diplomats being contained by Zimbabwean security services, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) confirmed that there had been an incident involving UK diplomats. The information we had just received was that the UK diplomats were no longer being contained; under the Vienna Convention it was essential that all diplomats were afforded protection. We were in the process of establishing what the full facts were surrounding this incident; the Foreign Office had summoned the Zimbabwe Ambassador to request an explanation and the Foreign Secretary would issue a statement shortly.

Asked what this meant for the Prime Minster’s hopes for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, the PMS said that we remained strongly of the view that elections should be free and fair; it was essential, in relation to our diplomats, that diplomats were afforded protection under the Vienna Convention. However, we were still in the process of establishing the full facts.

Asked how many diplomats were involved and how long they were held for, the PMS said that it was a number of diplomats but that we were still in the process of establishing the full facts. Hopefully we would be able to give journalists more information later on.

Put that there had been reports that American diplomats had been attacked and asked if there had been any violence against British officials, the PMS repeated that we were still establishing the facts but that the latest information was that the British diplomats were safe and no longer under detention.

Asked if the Foreign Secretary would be making a statement to the House of Commons, the PMS said that he did not anticipate that the Foreign Secretary would make a statement to the House; it was more likely to be a doorstep.

Asked how many diplomats we had in Zimbabwe, the PMS said that it was best to check with the Foreign Office.

Asked if there was any possibility that we could withdraw the diplomats, the PMS said that the first thing we needed to do was establish the full facts and that that was what we were in the process of doing and why we had summoned the Zimbabwe Ambassador.

Asked if what had happened could be described as an attack, the PMS said that we were still in the process of establishing the full facts and that we would be able to say more once we had more information.

Asked when the Prime Minister had been informed of the situation, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had been informed about the situation during the course of the afternoon.

Asked if we knew the area where this took place, the PMS said that he was not yet in the position to say anything about that.

Asked how further information on the situation would be communicated, the PMS replied that the next step was the statement from the Foreign Secretary.

Asked about various reports including cars ramming through roadblocks, the PMS said that it was not appropriate for him to start giving out that kind of information until we had a fuller account.

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» Thursday, June 5, 2008

Zimbabwe

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