Cablegate: Media Reaction Iraq; Harare

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS HARARE 000523

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER
LONDON FOR GURNEY
PARIS FOR NEARY
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM KPAO KMDR ZI
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION IRAQ; HARARE

1. Under headline "Claire blasts Blair's blurry vision"
the government-controlled daily "Chronicle"
dedicated its March 12 editorial to criticizing
President George Bush for imposing sanctions on the
Mugabe government, saying the executive order is "a
calculated program to oust President Mugabe and
install an MDC puppet regime." Adding, "the
so-called smart sanctions on Zimbabwe and its
leaders will adversely affect the generality of the
people in the country, especially the vulnerable."
Excerpts:

2. ". . .After sheepishly endorsing Tony Blairs'
imperialist foreign policies, some senior Britons
appear to be seeing the light and giving an ear to
the voice of reason. . .Britain's International
Development Minister, Ms. Claire Short has
threatened to resign if her government goes to war
with Iraq without being sanctioned by the United
nations. . . Blair and his cousin, George W. Bush
of the United Sates, have appointed themselves the
world policing agents and are determined to
undermine everyone including the U.N. in their bid
to eliminate any voices in the political arena they
consider to be odd. They appear resolved to usher
in a culture in world politics where all leaders do
not see, hear or speak evil about their neo-colonial
foreign policies.

"According to reports, Bush issued an executive
order on Friday to the U.S. Congress accusing the
ruling party in Zimbabwe of undermining
democracy. . . The order is clearly part of a
calculated program to oust President Mugabe and
install an MDC (Movement for Democratic Change)
puppet regime with a view to reversing the land
reform program. . . It is ironic that people like
Bush, who became president through the courts, want
to preach democracy to President Mugabe who spent
several years in prisons and in the bush fighting
for a democratic dispensation in Zimbabwe. We view
the interference of the Blair and Bush
administrations on Zimbabwe and other Third World
countries as terrorism and demand that the United
Nations censure them. Britain and the U.S. need
more people of the mould of Ms. Short to help knock
sense into the Blairs and Bushes of this world. The
war on Iraq will kill the innocent, mostly women and
children, and it is not surprising that Ms. Short is
opposed to it. On a similar vein the so-called
smart sanctions on Zimbabwe and its leaders will
adversely affect the generality of the people in the
country, especially the vulnerable."

SULLIVAN

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