US embassy cable - 03HARARE1975

UNCLAS HARARE 001975 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS; AF FOR 
MRAYNOR 
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 MUGABE'S BROADSIDE AGAINST WEST; 
HARARE 
 
 
  1.   Robert Mugabe's broadside against the West, especially 
      the United States and Britain, while addressing the 58th 
      United nations General Assembly in New York, made the lead 
      story in the September 27 edition of the government- 
      controlled daily "The Herald" (circulation 5-70,000). 
      Under headline "Don't dictate to us, West told: Zim's 
      criticism of Britain, United States based on principles: 
      President," the newspaper's Presidential Reporter Innocent 
      Gore, who accompanied Mugabe to New York, filed the 
      following report: 
 
  2.   "Zimbabwe does not criticize Britain and the United 
      States for the sake of it but its criticism is based 
      on fundamental principles, President Mugabe said 
      (09/26/03).  Addressing the 58th U. N. General 
      Assembly in New York, Mugabe attacked the emergence 
      of unipolarism in world affairs in which powerful 
      nations such as Britain and the U. S. sought to 
      dominate the world and dictate to other countries 
      how they should govern themselves.  He lamented the 
      invasion of Iraq by the U. S. and Britain without 
      the mandate of the U. N.  `Let it not be said that 
      Zimbabwe enjoys criticizing the U. S. and Britain 
      for the sake of criticism.  Our criticisms are 
      founded on sound, fundamental principles.  Let it 
      not be forgotten that Zimbabwe was in the chair when 
      the Security Council authorized the first Gulf War. 
      We stood firmly by the U. S., Britain and many other 
      nations that removed Iraq from Kuwait.  We did so on 
      the basis that expansionism and occupation of a 
      sovereign country and people cannot be right, can 
      never be just and warranted under any circumstance. 
      We admired the deployment of power under the 
      auspices of the U. N.  It is the absence of the same 
      ingredients that explain our indignation, our sharp 
      censure of the so-called coalition of the willing 
      that does not seem to recognize that both the Iraqis 
      and the world are unwilling to sanction the means 
      employed, and the end achieved,' said Mugabe. 
 
      ". . .Mugabe said at the heart of the tragedy in the 
      Persian Gulf was the unprecedented assault on 
      multilateralism in world affairs represented by the 
      Security Council which is the only guarantor of 
      global peace, order and security.  `Some powerful 
      western nations, led by the U. S. and Britain, went 
      to a war of unclear objectives in the face of clear 
      opposition from the rest of the world and as we now 
      know, with clear opposition from their own people. 
      It was and remains (an) unjust and illegitimate war, 
      unjust to the extent that it was founded and 
      prosecuted on falsehoods; illegitimate to the extent 
      that it was not sanctioned by the U. N. and has 
      transformed itself into effective occupation of a 
      sovereign people.'  Mugabe said there could never be 
      world peace under conditions of foreign invasion and 
      occupation.  There could never be world security and 
      order when naked power suspended and substituted 
      with unilateralism the hallowed principle of 
      multilateralism, on the basis of which peace had 
      been made, kept, preserved and expanded since the 
      Second World War. . .'  It is a strange logic that 
      the Iraqis pay for a bad president, a bad government 
      and a bad war by occupation and loss of their 
      sovereignty.  Let us state here quite clearly to 
      both Britain and the U. S. that the Iraqi people 
      must have the sovereign right to determine the 
      affairs of their country. . . .'" 
 
SULLIVAN