US embassy cable - 02HARARE2480

UNCLAS HARARE 002480 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PD, AF/S, AF/RA, AF/PDPA 
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KPAO, KMDR, ZI 
SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT PAPER ACCUSES U.S. AND BRITAIN OF 
"GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY" 
 
 
  1.   Under the headline "Zimbabwe is no colony" the 
      government-controlled weekly "Sunday News" dedicated 
      its November 10 editorial to accusing the United 
      States and Britain of practicing "gunboat diplomacy." 
      Excerpts: 
 
  2.    ". . .This week, the Deputy Secretary of State 
      for African Affairs in the U.S. Government, Mark 
      Bellamy, was quoted as saying Washington is plotting 
      interventionist measures that will challenge 
      Zimbabwe's sovereignty.  Simply put, the American 
      warmongers are planning a military invasion of 
      Zimbabwe and are setting up the pretext for such an 
      operation by making outrageous allegations of human 
      rights abuse, breakdown of the rule of law and the 
      persecution of opposition members.  While this 
      revelation has an American face, the real schemer is 
      Tony Blair.  The sheer hypocrisy of this Anglo-Saxon 
      alliance is phenomenal.  By any measure of 
      international law, Western leaders have been some of 
      the modern era's greatest prima facie terrorists and 
      war criminals. . .  Ranging from President Bill 
      Clinton's bombing of Sudan and Madeline Albright's 
      veto of an international rescue for Rwanda when she 
      was U.S. Ambassador to the UN, to the Bush dynasty's 
      genocide of millions of innocent Iraqi children, there 
      is plenty of evidence of their crimes against 
      humanity.  It would be folly to believe that the 
      heavily militarized foreign policy of Britain and the 
      U.S. is driven by a genuine crusade to serve humanity. 
      Rather, it is driven by their obsession with political 
      control and economic dominance.  So, in all respects 
      there is a resurgence of 19th century gunboat 
      diplomacy in an era when 21st century internationalism 
      had given so much false promise for world peace and 
      prosperity. . ." 
 
SULLIVAN