US embassy cable - 02HARARE1358

UNCLAS HARARE 001358 
 
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: PREL, PHUM, KPAO, ZI 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS EFFECTIVE; 
HARARE 
 
 
1.   Under headline "Government in a state of denial of 
    reality" the independent daily "The Daily News" 
    dedicated its Tuesday 4 editorial to declaring that the 
    travel restrictions imposed on Mugabe's government are 
    effective.  Excerpts: 
 
2.   "The government's attempts to pretend that the 
    whole world still loves it in spite of its violation of 
    its citizens' human rights are now bordering on the 
    absurd.  Last month, President Mugabe led a high- 
    powered delegation to New York to attend a United 
    Nations conference on children.  Under the UN 
    headquarters agreement the U.S. is obliged to let any 
    head of state into the UN building unless they are 
    banned or suspended from the UN.  That is the only 
    reason why Mugabe and his retinue were able to travel 
    to the US, in spite of the 'smart sanctions' imposed on 
    them by the US administration under the Zimbabwe 
    Democracy and Economic Recovery Act.  If they had 
    landed in Washington, DC or Seattle, in Washington 
    State, on a shopping spree, it is doubtful that they 
    would have been allowed to get off their plane.  But 
    the government propaganda would have us believe that 
    the government is winning its war against its 
    detractors, that the sanctions are ineffective and that 
    Zimbabwe is as squeaky clean, diplomatically, as it was 
    before the bloodshed that began with the farm invasions 
    of 2000 and culminated with the controversial 
    presidential election last March.  All this 
    misinformation may fool some people some of the time, 
    but it won't fool all the people all the time. . . ." 
 
SULLIVAN