US embassy cable - 02HARARE1879

UNCLAS HARARE 001879 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PD, AF/S 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP, KPAO, ZI 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT AFRICAN AMERICANS UNDER FIRE; HARARE 
 
  1.   Under headline "African Americans betraying Zimbabwe" 
      the independent "Daily News" dedicated its August 19 
      editorial to criticizing a group of African Americans who 
      are currently in the country at the invitation of the 
      Zimbabwe government. The editorial accuses the group of 
      being used as a propaganda tool by the Zimbabwean 
      government as it attempts to demonstrate the "support of 
      the international community" for its controversial fast- 
      track land reform program.  Excerpts: 
 
  2.   ". . .During (Mr. Robert Mugabe's) visit to the Far 
      East in the first week of August Mugabe, to the 
      utter disbelief of all diplomatic observers and the 
      world Press who knows what the true position is, 
      stunned everyone by claiming that his government was 
      leaving all white commercial farmers with at least 
      one farm each.  Last week he repeated that false 
      claim when he told a group of `visiting' black 
      Americans that his controversial land reform 
      program, a disguised, violent campaign launched to 
      destroy the MDC (Movement of Democratic Change), 
      would not leave white farmers landless. . .President 
      Mugabe clearly believes that those claims will 
      successfully fool everyone.  And that is extremely 
      disconcerting, to say the least. . .And yet some 
      obscure American blacks appear only too happy to 
      support the lie - for the money of course.  It is a 
      crying shame.  The world's moralists may not regard 
      the late former President of the United States, John 
      Fitzgerald Kennedy, as having been the best 
      qualified to lecture the international community on 
      matters of morality.  Nevertheless, his 
      pronouncement: `The hottest places in hell are 
      reserved for those who, in times of crisis, maintain 
      their neutrality' will stand forever as one of the 
      best moral teachings of all time.  It's much worse 
      for those who actively support injustice." 
 
WHITEHEAD