US embassy cable - 03HARARE1362

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 001362 
 
SIPDIS 
 
OPSCENTER PASS TO POTUS PARTY 
DAKAR AND PRETORIA FOR A/S KANSTEINER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/07/2008 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, ZI, U.S.-Zimbabwe Bilateral Relations 
SUBJECT: MUGABE LAUNCHES RHETORICAL DEFENSE AGAINST VISIT 
OF PRESIDENT BUSH: US COUNTER-POINTS 
 
REF: A. (A) FBIS RESTON AFP20030707000114 
 
     B. (B) FBIS RESTON FBIS RESTON 20030704000061 
 
Classified By: JOSEPH G. SULLIVAN FOR REASONS 1.5B/D 
 
1.(u) The GOZ and President Mugabe have sought to send out 
several messages in advance of President Bush's visit to 
Africa and anticipated pressure on the Mugabe regime.  The 
state media, led by Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, has 
dished out a steady stream of vitriol replete with 
broad-gauge attacks on the US, racial slurs, criticism of the 
US operation in Iraq, claims that the US was seeking African 
resources or to prevent land redistribution to indigenous 
Zimbabweans and arguments based on national sovereignty. 
Mugabe sought to downplay the importance and risks for the 
GOZ of President Bush's visit by telling a ZANU-PF Central 
Committee meeting last Thursday that the USG would never 
attempt what it had in Iraq (ref b).  But by Sunday, Mugabe 
told a mystified rural crowd that President Bush and Prime 
Minister Blair had lied on Iraq, were "liars" and "criminals" 
and must stand before the International Court of Justice(ref 
a).   He went on to say that President Bush was not welcome 
in Africa if he sought to interfere in internal African 
affairs, that South Africa would tell him that, and that 
Mugabe supported those in South Africa who were protesting 
President Bush's visit.  While this story was featured on 
Sunday state television news, it had disappeared from 
Monday's state radio and newspaper coverage, as if someone 
had second thoughts about publicizing Mugabe's harsh language. 
 
2.(c)  The GOZ lines of defense are obvious: national 
sovereignty, interference in African and Zimbabwean affairs, 
and claims that the US is acting to prevent distribution of 
land from white farmers to landless blacks.  We can preempt 
these defenses by making the following points: 
 
-- the US seeks to give the Zimbabwean people the right to 
choose its own leadership in free and fair elections, 
something they were not given in the 2002 elections; 
 
-- the US defends the human and civil rights of all 
Zimbabweans; it is the black majority which has suffered most 
from human rights abuses and poor governance; 
 
-- the US has always supported land redistribution designed 
to benefit Zimbabwe's poor, something the Mugabe regime's 
land reform has not done; 
 
-- the Mugabe land redistribution and economic policies have 
failed the basic test of governance by creating the 
conditions in which Zimbabweans are no longer able to feed 
themselves. 
 
In response to the corollary point made by the GOZ and some 
South Africans that Zimbabweans    must be left to solve 
their problems themselves, the counter is that 
 
-- the GOZ and ZANU-PF have declined to engage in any serious 
dialogue since initially agreeing to an agenda for dialogue 
in May of 2002. 
 
SULLIVAN