US embassy cable - 03HARARE1318

Disclaimer: This site has been first put up 15 years ago. Since then I would probably do a couple things differently, but because I've noticed this site had been linked from news outlets, PhD theses and peer rewieved papers and because I really hate the concept of "digital dark age" I've decided to put it back up. There's no chance it can produce any harm now.

Identifier:	03HARARE1318
Wikileaks:	View 03HARARE1318 at Wikileaks.org
Origin:	Embassy Harare
Created:	2003-06-27 08:50:00
Classification:	UNCLASSIFIED
Tags:	PREL KPAO KMDR ZI
Redacted:	This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.

UNCLAS HARARE 001318 
 
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: MEDIA REACTION POWELL ON ZIM CRISIS; HARARE 
 
  1.   Under headline "Ball in your court" the independent 
      daily "The Daily News" dedicated its June 26 
      editorial to encouraging Robert Mugabe's government 
      to embrace Secretary Colin Powell's recommendations, 
      carried in an op-ed published in the New York Times, 
      in support of a recovery program for the country's 
      ragged economy.  Excerpts: 
 
  2.   ". . .Zimbabweans. . .must not allow Mugabe and 
      ZANU PF to sacrifice on the alter of ego the latest 
      opportunity offered by America to pull Zimbabwe out 
      of crisis.  United States Secretary of State Colin 
      Powell, writing in the `New York Times' newspaper 
      this week, vouched generous economic aid for 
      Zimbabwe if ZANU PF and the MDC seriously engaged in 
      dialogue that would lead to peaceful, transparent 
      and democratic elections to choose a new government. 
      Powell promised that aid would even start flowing to 
      Zimbabwe even before fresh elections were held, as 
      long as the transition to democracy was irreversibly 
      set in motion. . .It would be a terrible betrayal to 
      posterity if Zimbabweans allowed a government, whose 
      time has - as Powell correctly puts it - come and 
      long gone, to once more sabotage the future of this 
      country by letting the offer of help being extended 
      by the U. S. with the backing of the rest of the 
      international community, slip away.  The ball is in 
      your court, Zimbabweans." 
 
SULLIVAN