As if things couldn’t be bad enough in Zimbabwe, we’ve just had reports this morning that plain-clothes police have raided the offices of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (9.45 Zim time), demanding they hand over publicity materials for the planned strike on 3/4 April or face a beating.

Staff at the top of the building managed to get out, but a lot of them have been locked into the building, and are being threatened to make them hand over the materials.

General Secretary Wellington Chibebe was out of the office in court at the time, facing charges over his last arrest, when he and other colleagues were severely beaten in police custody after staging a peaceful demonstration (a fate which also seems also to have met Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC leaders this week). I don’t know any more about who’s been detained in the offices, but given what they were willing to do to the high profile figures of the movement, I’m worried about the rest of their staff.

Zimbabwe’s UK Embassy’s email is zimlondon@yahoo.co.uk and their fax is 02073791167 (The Ambassador is Mr Gabriel Mharadze Machinga) – I’m off now to give him an email earful. If you want to waste some of Mad Bob’s fax paper, it’s 002634703858. He likes to be addressed as ‘your Excellency’ if you’re writing to him, though I don’t imagine too many people would give him that title if they didn’t know.

See you at Zimbabwe Vigil’s special demonstration outside the Embassy on the Strand 1-4pm tomorrow (Wed 14 Mar) – www.zimvigil.co.uk

UPDATE 11:00 GMT: Just heard that the police have gone from the office for the moment, though staff fear they will be back. They beat two staffers and then took away printed materials and equipment. One ZCTU staff member was taken into custody.