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British diplomat attacked

    JOHANNESBURG

    A British diplomat holidaying on a farm in Zimbabwe was attacked by war veterans and briefly held hostage with his wife and two children, farm union officials said on Wednesday.

    Nick Syrett, a 38-year-old diplomat based in London, was confronted on Monday night by a group of war veterans occupying the farm in the Mvurwi district, about 90 km north of Harare. "They called him out saying they wanted to talk to the owner of the farm. He said the owner was away. When he
    came out he was knocked unconscious for about 10 seconds," a spokesman for the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) told Reuters.

    The siege ended when a local veterans' leader intervened and convinced the squatters to leave the farm, owned by the diplomat's brother-in-law.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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