US embassy cable - 02HARARE974

Disclaimer: This site has been first put up 15 years ago. Since then I would probably do a couple things differently, but because I've noticed this site had been linked from news outlets, PhD theses and peer rewieved papers and because I really hate the concept of "digital dark age" I've decided to put it back up. There's no chance it can produce any harm now.

MEDIA REPORT KUDOS TO AFRICA; HARARE

Identifier: 02HARARE974
Wikileaks: View 02HARARE974 at Wikileaks.org
Origin: Embassy Harare
Created: 2002-04-23 07:47:00
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Tags: ZI PREL PHUM
Redacted: This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.


 
UNCLAS HARARE 000974 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/PD FOR COX AND ROBERTSON, AF/S FOR KRAFT AND 
SCHLACHTER, AF/RA FOR SWANN, INR/R/MR, NSC FOR JENDAYI 
FRAZER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ZI, PREL, PHUM 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT KUDOS TO AFRICA; HARARE 
 
1.   Under headline "Don't abuse UN" the 
   government-controlled weekly "The Sunday News" 
   dedicated its April 21 editorial to hailing African 
   countries for blocking a call for an investigation 
   into alleged human rights violations in Zimbabwe 
   during a United Nations human rights forum in 
   Geneva, Switzerland last week.  The same editorial 
   also characterized the U.S. human rights record as 
   "deplorable."  Excerpts: 
 
2.   "Human rights are not white man's preserve.  This 
   is the strong message that came across on Friday when 
   the United Nations Human Rights Commission humiliated 
   Britain and the European Union (EU).  The EU concocted 
   ridiculous allegations against Zimbabwe, claiming that 
   the government has grossly violated human rights in 
   the country and should be investigated by UN experts. 
   But in an extraordinary feat of diplomacy, Nigeria led 
   African, Asian and Middle Eastern countries in the 53- 
   member Commission to successfully oppose the EU's 
   mischievous campaign. 
 
   "The West's own human rights record is deplorable. 
   America has a deplorable record in Angola. . .Iraq, 
   Afghanistan and Latin America.  A few years ago, 
   the U.S. military bombed a pharmaceutical factory 
   in Sudan after making unfounded allegations that it 
   was a chemical weapons plant.  Although there is 
   overwhelming evidence that Washington was wrong. . 
   .no apologies have been forthcoming.  Surely, this 
   makes the U.S. a rogue state.  Western countries 
   are not qualified to lecture developing countries 
   like Zimbabwe on so-called human rights.  With this 
   crucial diplomatic victory developing countries 
   have reminded the West that political bullying of 
   the colonial type is unacceptable." 
 
WHITEHEAD 

Latest source of this page is cablebrowser-2, released 2011-10-04