US embassy cable - 03HARARE1838

UNCLAS HARARE 001838 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS 
IRAQ PD FOR SMITH, PINESS AND ROOKARD 
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, KPAO, KMDR, ZI 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION CUBA/ZIM/U. S. RELATIONS; HARARE 
 
  1.   Under headline "Cuba, Zimbabwe lead the way" the 
      government-controlled weekly "The Sunday News" 
      dedicated its September 7 editorial to demonizing 
      the West, especially the United States and Britain, 
      for allegedly maltreating Cuba and Zimbabwe. 
      Excerpts follow: 
 
  2.   "Newspaper pictures and television footage of 
      President Mugabe chatting with President Fidel Castro of 
      Cuba in Havana this week are some of the most potent images 
      of the anti-imperialist movement that the world has seen in 
      recent times. . .Today, the two nations have everything in 
      common because the United States has imposed sanctions on 
      Cuba while Britain has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe. . 
      .There is now every indication that the U. S. and its 
      cronies have sought to isolate and demonize Cuba, not 
      because President Castro has no respect for human rights 
      alleged by warmongers in Washington DC, but because Cuba 
      has prospered socio-economically even under U. S. attack. . 
      .The Americans are baffled how a Third World country like 
      Cuba can brush off sanctions and actually develop 
      outstanding education and health delivery services. 
      Whether the world cares to believe it or not, the fact 
      remains that literacy and infant mortality rates are better 
      in this socialist nation than they are in the capitalist U. 
      S. . .Zimbabwe's Third Chimurenga (land reform program) has 
      captured the imagination of the world, not because this 
      country is the center of the universe, but because our land 
      reform program is the most intriguing example of an African 
      people confronting the hegemony of imperial powers in the 
      brave pursuit of social justice.  Cuba, Zimbabwe and indeed 
      the rest of the Third World must continue to fight for 
      social justice in a world dominated by Western imperial 
      overloads who use globalization as an instrument of plunder 
      and oppression. . .And to think that Western countries are 
      always telling us that globalization has been a roaring 
      success and provides the only hope for civilization.  This 
      propaganda is as treacherous as President George W. Bush's 
      outrageous claim that Iraq President Saddam Hussein 
      possessed weapons of mass destruction. . . ." 
 
SULLIVAN