US embassy cable - 02HARARE1145

UNCLAS HARARE 001145 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/PD FOR COX AND ROBERTSON, AF/S FOR KRAFT AND SCHLACHTER, 
AF/RA FOR DIPALMA, INR/R/MR, NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ZI, PREL, PHUM 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT ON MUGABE'S VISIT TO THE UN 
 
 
1.   Under headline "One trip to New York won't change 
   much" 
   the independent daily "The Daily News" dedicated its 
   May 14 editorial to President Mugabe's May 8-11 
   Trip to UN headquarters in New York. Excerpts: 
 
2.   "President Mugabe ignored the crisis in his own 
   country 
   and flew to the UN in New York just to cock a snook at 
   his domestic and international detractors. . .  It would 
   seem that massaging his own political ego is much more 
   vital to the President than the prospect of facing head- 
   on the problems his government has created for the last 
   22 years.  The conference on children at the UN was 
   important in its own way, but not for a head of state 
   whose country has not recovered from the political fall- 
   out of an election condemned as woefully flawed by 
   everybody not particularly starry-eyed about the false 
   glory of 'regaining our heritage' - the violence-riddled 
   land reform program. . ." 
SULLIVAN