Activists campaigning against Robert Mugabe’s regime were today arrested after staging a sit-in protest at the Zimbabwean embassy in London, hours after the United States ambassador to the dilapidated nation said that opposition to the authoritarian leader had reached a tipping point.

Christopher Dell, Washington’s envoy in Zimbabwe, said that resistance had reached a peak because people were no longer fearful of the regime and felt they had nothing left to lose.

His comments came amid rising international criticism of Mr Mugabe for his recent brutal attack on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, which this morning saw a group of around ten men and women demonstrating in the Zimbabwean embassy building on the Strand in London.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said the protesters had been arrested for trespass on a diplomatic premises. “We have arrested seven men and three women and they are currently being held at a central London police station,” he told Times Online.

The protest is the latest is a number of demonstrations held by MDC members in the UK. Last week more than 300 rallied on the streets of London following the news of the bloody assault on Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC leader, by Mr Mugabe’s police force.

Speaking in an interview yesterday, Mr Dell said that Zimbabwe’s government was in disarray and was no longer able to rule effectively, with increasing numbers within the regime and Mr Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party wanting the President to step down.

While insisting he was not advocating or predicting any violent overthrow of the government, the Ambassador told the Associated Press there was discontent within the military and a split in security forces, amid a fresh decline in the country’s disastrous economy.

Combined with the rise of resistance, opposition to the regime had reached a turning point.

“The key new element in the equation that has become obvious over the past 10 to 12 days is the new spirit of resistance, some would say defiance, on the part of the people,” Mr Dell said.

“The people have lost their willingness to go on. They are losing their fear,” he added. “They believe they have nothing left to lose.”

Rank-and-file police officers increasingly were reluctant to carry out attacks against opposition activists, he said, claiming that the police were trying to distance themselves from the violence by telling detained protesters that the beating were carried out by Mugabe’s secret police and the Green Bombers, the ruling party’s militant youth militia.

This new attitude Mr Dell said, had partly come about from the collapse of the economy, which left the regime unable to provide adequate patronage – one of the key elements of his rule.

“Police officers feel insecure. We are told some are afraid to wear their uniforms back and forth to work,” said Mr Dell, adding that most officers lived in the poor crowded suburbs of Harare and were afraid of reprisals from their neighbours.

Global condemnation of the Mugabe regime has reached a new high after opposition activists claimed the police had disrupted their gatherings and beaten their leaders, including Mr Tsvangirai, who was hospitalised after authorities broke up a prayer meeting on March 11.

Yesterday, the MDC reported fresh abuses, saying that 35 of its supporters had to receive treatment after suffering beatings at the hands of ruling party youths and state agents patrolling townships in unmarked vehicles.

In the interview, Mr Dell made a fresh plea to other African nations to come out in strong condemnation of the Zimbabwean government’s actions. “The one thing you will notice is none of them are speaking up in Mugabe’s defence anymore. There is a kind of embarrassed silence in the region now,” he said.

South Africa issued its most vocal criticism of Zimbabwe to date yesterday but said it would stick to its policy of quiet diplomacy because open criticism had yielded no results.

“The beating and violence against any citizens of Zimbabwe is obviously unacceptable to us as government,” Themba Maseko, South African Cabinet spokesman, said.

But in Zimbabwe itself, Mr Tsvangirai met with South Africa’s ambassador to protest the silence of African leaders “while these atrocities are being perpetrated by one of their number.”

In a damming statement, the MDC said the lack of response made a “complete mockery” of South Africa’s abolition of apartheid and its transition to democracy.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa - who takes over the presidency of the 13-nation Southern African Development Community in August - said yesterday that he hoped the bloc would develop a common stance on the crisis in the coming days.

Mr Mugabe also faces rising tensions within his ZANU-PF party, largely because of the impending succession issue. The 83-year-old has indicated he might run for another term next year, but many in the party want him to step down sooner rather than later, amid quarrels over who should take over control.

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