US embassy cable - 03HARARE1031

UNCLAS HARARE 001031 
 
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, KPAO, KMDR, ZI 
SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT MEDIA CRITICIZE ARCHBISHOP NCUBE FO 
MEETING WITH SECRETARY POWELL 
 
 
  1.   Under headline "Pius Ncube must make his 
      intentions clear" the government-controlled daily 
      "Chronicle's" May 22 editorial was critical of Bulawayo 
      Archbishop Pius Ncube for having met with Secretary of 
      State Colin Powell during a recent visit to Washington. 
      Excerpts follow. 
 
  2.   ". . .Instead of us being told that the Archbishop 
      was welcomed by and held talks with fellow Catholics in 
      the U.S., we are told that he met General Colin Powell, 
      the U.S. Secretary of State and a host of secret 
      agents.   General Powell is a military man who got his 
      ego inflated to unimaginable proportions following his 
      escapades in Iraq. . .  Since Gen. Powell insinuated 
      that they (Powell and Ncube) seemed to agree on the 
      main issues, seeing that his (Ncube's) stance was 
      `principled,' this would seem to point to a consensus 
      over the removal of the government of Zimbabwe that was 
      elected in 2002.  Some American Kainsteiner has made it 
      no secret that the U.S. seeks to remove the 
      democratically elected government of Zimbabwe.  It 
      becomes cause for concern if men of the cloth start 
      giving political speeches from the pulpit. . . ." 
 
SULLIVAN