Britain recalled its envoy from Zimbabwe yesterday for consultations and accused Harare of uncivilised behaviour in opening a British diplomatic shipment.
The Foreign Office Minister, Mr Peter Hain, said Zimbabwean customs officials opened the container of communications equipment yesterday on the orders of the government. It had been impounded at gunpoint on Saturday, he said.
Zimbabwe Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Stan Mudenge, said Zimbabwe had "reasonable grounds to be suspicious" and opened the shipment because Britain refused to declare the contents as required by international law governing diplomatic relations.
Mr Hain summoned Zimbabwe's high commissioner to Britain, Mr Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, to protest. The meeting lasted five minutes and the diplomat offered no comment or explanation, the Foreign Office said.
In Harare, the Customs Department director, Mr Ranga Munyaradzi, said the British had made a false declaration and Zimbabwe was convinced the goods were not for diplomatic use.
The row marked a further deterioration in relations between Britain and its former southern African colony. They are already at loggerheads over President Robert Mugabe's economic policies and the precarious status of white farmers in Zimbabwe.