US embassy cable - 03HARARE1409

UNCLAS HARARE 001409 
 
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 PRESIDENT BUSH'S VISIT TO AFRICA; 
HARARE 
 
1.  Under headline "Bush putting up a faade" the July 10 
edition of the independent weekly "The Financial Gazette" 
carried the following opinion piece by Taungana Ndoro under 
his regular column "Inside Politics" on page 13, in which 
he bemoans the exclusion of Zimbabwe from President Bush's 
itinerary in Africa.  Excerpts: 
 
". . .It's folly for Bush to think that he can solve 
Zimbabwe's problems via South Africa.  President Thabo 
Mbeki's position on that one is very clear - leave 
Zimbabweans to solve their own problems, period!  The only 
logical thing for Bush to harangue about is Mugabe's asylum 
in South Africa.  Mbeki should simply be persuaded to offer 
Mugabe asylum just as Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo offered 
Charles Taylor of Liberia.  If Bush's visit to Africa was 
really in earnest, he would have been in Harare today 
urging talks between the ruling ZANU PF and the opposition 
MDC.  Zimbabwe is drowning in economic debris and all Bush 
can do to help is watch from a distance and try and push 
Mbeki to the forefront of maneuvering an amicable 
settlement for the beleaguered Zimbabweans.  The problem is 
that there is nothing at stake for the Americans in 
Zimbabwe.  Zimbabwe is not Iraq.  It does not have oil. . 
.There is therefore, not a chance in hell for Zimbabwe to 
tempt the Americans' insatiable taste for oil.  We do not 
have weapons of mass destruction either. . .Americans will 
be Americans.  If their interests are not threatened, then 
they have no interest in whatever venture - not even the 
Zimbabwe crisis. . . ." 
 
SULLIVAN