US embassy cable - 02HARARE1198

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Identifier:	02HARARE1198
Wikileaks:	View 02HARARE1198 at Wikileaks.org
Origin:	Embassy Harare
Created:	2002-05-20 13:03:00
Classification:	UNCLASSIFIED
Tags:	ZI PREL PHUM
Redacted:	This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.

UNCLAS HARARE 001198 
 
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: "STANDARD" EDITORIAL DEFIANT 
 
 
1.   In the wake of his May 16 arrest for "publishing 
   false stories," the editor of the independent weekly 
   "Standard," Bornwell Chakaodza, used his May 19 
   editorial as a defiant bully pulpit.  Excerpts: 
 
2.   ". . .Daring to tell the truth, even the obvious 
   truth, is now a dangerous occupation. . .  (Information 
   Minister Jonathan) Moyo has declared war on the free 
   press and will do whatever he can to crush it beneath 
   his clumsy boot.  Fortunately he won't succeed. 
 
   ". . .History tells us that when ruling parties 
   start legislating to protect themselves, when they 
   begin to punish dissent, then their days are 
   numbered.  ZANU PF's good fortune has been the good- 
   natured tolerance of Zimbabweans, but that 
   tolerance is wearing thin. . .  If they think that 
   passing laws in a rubber-stamp parliament, or 
   buying powerful weapons of oppression, will 
   lengthen their stay, then they're sadly mistaken. 
   It also needs to be said that if the police or 
   Jonathan Moyo thinks that arresting and charging 
   journalists will silence the press, then they too 
   are in for a surprise.  It won't - and the angrier 
   they become, the more entrenched and resolute will 
   be the determination to carry on." 
 
SULLIVAN