US embassy cable - 03HARARE523

UNCLAS HARARE 000523 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS 
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: MEDIA REACTION IRAQ; HARARE 
 
 
  1.   Under headline "Claire blasts Blair's blurry vision" 
      the government-controlled daily "Chronicle" 
      dedicated its March 12 editorial to criticizing 
      President George Bush for imposing sanctions on the 
      Mugabe government, saying the executive order is "a 
      calculated program to oust President Mugabe and 
      install an MDC puppet regime."  Adding, "the 
      so-called smart sanctions on Zimbabwe and its 
      leaders will adversely affect the generality of the 
      people in the country, especially the vulnerable." 
      Excerpts: 
 
  2.   ". . .After sheepishly endorsing Tony Blairs' 
      imperialist foreign policies, some senior Britons 
      appear to be seeing the light and giving an ear to 
      the voice of reason. . .Britain's International 
      Development Minister, Ms. Claire Short has 
      threatened to resign if her government goes to war 
      with Iraq without being sanctioned by the United 
      nations. . .  Blair and his cousin, George W. Bush 
      of the United Sates, have appointed themselves the 
      world policing agents and are determined to 
      undermine everyone including the U.N. in their bid 
      to eliminate any voices in the political arena they 
      consider to be odd.  They appear resolved to usher 
      in a culture in world politics where all leaders do 
      not see, hear or speak evil about their neo-colonial 
      foreign policies. 
 
      "According to reports, Bush issued an executive 
      order on Friday to the U.S. Congress accusing the 
      ruling party in Zimbabwe of undermining 
      democracy. . .  The order is clearly part of a 
      calculated program to oust President Mugabe and 
      install an MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) 
      puppet regime with a view to reversing the land 
      reform program. . .  It is ironic that people like 
      Bush, who became president through the courts, want 
      to preach democracy to President Mugabe who spent 
      several years in prisons and in the bush fighting 
      for a democratic dispensation in Zimbabwe.  We view 
      the interference of the Blair and Bush 
      administrations on Zimbabwe and other Third World 
      countries as terrorism and demand that the United 
      Nations censure them.  Britain and the U.S. need 
      more people of the mould of Ms. Short to help knock 
      sense into the Blairs and Bushes of this world.  The 
      war on Iraq will kill the innocent, mostly women and 
      children, and it is not surprising that Ms. Short is 
      opposed to it.  On a similar vein the so-called 
      smart sanctions on Zimbabwe and its leaders will 
      adversely affect the generality of the people in the 
      country, especially the vulnerable." 
 
SULLIVAN