MEDIA REPORT ON MUGABE'S VISIT TO THE UN

UNCLAS HARARE 001145

SIPDIS

AF/PD FOR COX AND ROBERTSON, AF/S FOR KRAFT AND SCHLACHTER,
AF/RA FOR DIPALMA, INR/R/MR, NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ZI PREL PHUM
SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT ON MUGABE'S VISIT TO THE UN



1. Under headline "One trip to New York won't change
much"
the independent daily "The Daily News" dedicated its
May 14 editorial to President Mugabe's May 8-11
Trip to UN headquarters in New York. Excerpts:


2. "President Mugabe ignored the crisis in his own
country
and flew to the UN in New York just to cock a snook at
his domestic and international detractors. . . It would
seem that massaging his own political ego is much more
vital to the President than the prospect of facing head-
on the problems his government has created for the last
22 years. The conference on children at the UN was
important in its own way, but not for a head of state
whose country has not recovered from the political fall-
out of an election condemned as woefully flawed by
everybody not particularly starry-eyed about the false
glory of 'regaining our heritage' - the violence-riddled
land reform program. . ."
SULLIVAN