By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN, June 6 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's harassment of diplomats and aid groups shows it will fail to respect the rule of law during the June 27 presidential election run-off, the country's main opposition party said on Friday. The accusation by Tendai Biti, secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change, came a day after police detained U.S. and British diplomats outside Harare and relief agencies were barred from doing work in the country. "It is almost as if the regime is sending out a message to the region, to the international community that it doesn't care, that it has no respect for life, it has no respect for the rule of law," Biti said in a presentation at the World Economic Forum for Africa in Cape Town. "The regime is increasing the decibels of insanity." MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in a March 29 election but failed to win the majority needed to avoid a second ballot. Tsvangirai was held and questioned by police for eight hours earlier this week while campaigning. On Thursday, police stopped and held five U.S. and two British diplomats for several hours after they visited victims of political violence, prompting strong condemnation from the U.S. and British governments. The United States blamed the diplomats' detention firmly on Mugabe's government, which Washington accuses of trying to intimidate Tsvangirai's supporters ahead of the election. U.S. ambassador James McGee, who was among those detained, will lodge an official complaint in a meeting with Zimbabwe's foreign ministry, the U.S. embassy in Harare said on Friday. It was not clear when the meeting would occur. McGee would also protest at the assault of a Zimbabwean staff member and damage to an embassy vehicle, a U.S. official said. Zimbabwean police said the diplomats had triggered the incident by failing to identify themselves when they were stopped at Chipadze outside the capital. "In essence, they were reducing themselves to common criminals because if they had identified themselves there would have been no problems," police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told the state-controlled Herald newspaper. AID SUSPENDED Mugabe's government suspended the work of all international aid agencies in the southern African nation on Thursday. Zimbabwe, once one of Africa's most prosperous countries, has seen food production plummet since 2000 when Mugabe's government began seizing thousands of white-owned farms as part of a land redistribution programme to help poor blacks. Many of the farms have ended up in the hands of Mugabe loyalists, and the country now faces chronic food shortages. It has had to rely on handouts and imports to feed its people. Zimbabwe has accused CARE International and other non-governmental groups of political involvement, including campaigning for the MDC. CARE and others deny the charges. "This suspension is a direct threat to the lives and well-being of tens of thousands of innocent people in Zimbabwe," said Henrietta Fore, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a government agency. The United States provided more than $170 million in food aid to Zimbabwe in 2007. The U.S. and British governments, along with human rights groups and Zimbabwe's opposition, have accused Mugabe of a campaign of violence to try to keep his 28-year hold on power. Tsvangirai says 65 people have been killed. Mugabe blames his opponents for the violence and sanctions imposed by Western countries for the collapse of the once prosperous economy. The opposition says he ruined Zimbabwe through mismanagement. The Southern African Development Community, a regional grouping of 14 nations, including Zimbabwe, is sending observers to monitor the run-off. (Additional reporting by Nelson Banya in Harare; Writing by Paul Simao; Editing by Charles Dick)
British Ambassador to U.N. John Sawers (C) talks to Sudan's president assistant Nafi Ali Nafi (R) as South Africa's Ambassador to U.N. Dumisani Kumalo looks on before the meeting of members ...
