US embassy cable - 02HARARE2033

UNCLAS HARARE 002033 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PD, AF/S, AF/RA 
NSC FOE JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KPAO, KMDR, ZI 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION WSSD; HARARE 
 
  1.   Government-owned print and broadcast media in 
      Zimbabwe gave prominent coverage to the heckling of 
      Secretary of State Powell at the WSSD on September 4. 
      The story featured prominently on television and radio 
      news programs and was page 1, above-the-fold in the 
      government-owned Herald and Chronicle newspapers.  All 
      reporting in government media sought to portray the 
      heckling of Powell as an additional sign of President 
      Mugabe's popularity and strength, and the "isolation" 
      of the United States and the UK.  Excerpts follow. 
 
  2.   Under headline "Attempt to blame Zim for Food 
      crisis backfires: Colin Powell Booed" the government- 
      controlled daily "The Herald" (09/05) carried the 
      following page-1 story by political editor Munyaradzi 
      Huni: 
 
     "U.S. Secretary of State Mr. Colin Powell's bid to 
     blame Zimbabwe for the prevailing food crisis 
     yesterday backfired when he was booed and jeered 
     by delegates to the Earth Summit.  All hell broke 
     loose when Mr. Powell charged that Zimbabwe's 
     alleged lack of respect for human rights and 
     democracy was causing the food crisis in the 
     country and pushing `millions of people to the 
     brink of starvation.'  Mr. Powell. . .was scolded 
     by delegates who saw the attack on Zimbabwe as an 
     attempt to exonerate British Prime Minister Tony 
     Blair from the humiliating dressing down by 
     President Mugabe over Britain's interference in 
     Zimbabwe on Monday. . . 
 
  3.   Zimbabwean radio and television (all government- 
      owned) news reports on September 4 and 5 portrayed the 
      heckling of the Secretary of State as another 
      expression of global popular support for President 
      Mugabe.  William Nhara, a political analyst interviewed 
      on the September 4 prime-time television news program 
      said that President Mugabe's speech at the WSSD was 
      comparable to Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream 
      Speech" in terms of liberating Africans from 
      colonialism.  Nhara went on to say that, in the wake of 
      Mugabe's speech, the U.S. and UK were isolated in their 
      criticism of Mugabe.  This comment was followed by a 
      three-minute report on the Secretary of State's speech 
      in which the reporter sought to make the case that the 
      Secretary was heckled by "the growing international 
      coalition" of President Mugabe's supporters. 
 
  4.   The independent "Daily News" and Financial 
      Gazette" carried a factual Reuters accounts of Powell's 
      speech and the interruptions to it.  The wire service 
      article attributed the heckling to "environmentalists." 
 
SULLIVAN