US embassy cable - 02HARARE1824

UNCLAS HARARE 001824 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PD (DALTON), AF/S (SCHLACHTER), INR/R/MR 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KPAO, KMDR, ZI 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT GOZ TO CLAMP DOWN ON OPPOSITION; 
HARARE 
 
 
  1.   Under headline "Signs of the end" the independent 
      weekly "The Financial Gazette" dedicated its 
      August 8 editorial to criticizing the government of 
      Zimbabwe for mooting a plan to clamp down on 
      opposition by withdrawing traveling documents from 
      Zimbabweans opposed to the Mugabe administration. 
      Excerpts: 
 
  2.   "The threat by Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo to 
      withdraw the passport of Zimbabweans who are opposed to the 
      government and to slap them with exit visas is only the 
      latest sign, if any was needed, of a regime gone berserk 
      and clearly nearing its end.  Not content with draconian 
      laws rushed through Parliament earlier this year to silence 
      democratic dissent, the besieged government now wants to 
      clamp down further on the free movement and free speech of 
      some citizens on the pretext that they are campaigning 
      against Zimbabwe.  That there is a world of difference 
      between Zimbabwe, as a nation and as a state, and 
      individual government members who are willfully flouting 
      the law is conveniently ignored to try to appeal to the 
      crude emotions of the common man.  Needless to say that the 
      proposed measures are grossly unconstitutional and aimed at 
      pushing Zimbabwe back into the Stone Age. . .It is thus 
      that the administration's counter-sanctions lobby has 
      hatched the grand plan of taking harsh retaliatory action 
      against all perceived enemies, both domestic and foreign, 
      to try to weaken a people's resolve to end tyranny that is 
      daily engulfing the land. . . ." 
 
WHITEHEAD