MEDIA REPORT GOZ TO CLAMP DOWN ON OPPOSITION;

UNCLAS HARARE 001824

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/PD (DALTON),AF/S (SCHLACHTER),INR/R/MR


E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO KMDR ZI
SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT GOZ TO CLAMP DOWN ON OPPOSITION;
HARARE



1. Under headline "Signs of the end" the independent
weekly "The Financial Gazette" dedicated its
August 8 editorial to criticizing the government of
Zimbabwe for mooting a plan to clamp down on
opposition by withdrawing traveling documents from
Zimbabweans opposed to the Mugabe administration.
Excerpts:


2. "The threat by Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo to
withdraw the passport of Zimbabweans who are opposed to the
government and to slap them with exit visas is only the
latest sign, if any was needed, of a regime gone berserk
and clearly nearing its end. Not content with draconian
laws rushed through Parliament earlier this year to silence
democratic dissent, the besieged government now wants to
clamp down further on the free movement and free speech of
some citizens on the pretext that they are campaigning
against Zimbabwe. That there is a world of difference
between Zimbabwe, as a nation and as a state, and
individual government members who are willfully flouting
the law is conveniently ignored to try to appeal to the
crude emotions of the common man. Needless to say that the
proposed measures are grossly unconstitutional and aimed at
pushing Zimbabwe back into the Stone Age. . .It is thus
that the administration's counter-sanctions lobby has
hatched the grand plan of taking harsh retaliatory action
against all perceived enemies, both domestic and foreign,
to try to weaken a people's resolve to end tyranny that is
daily engulfing the land. . . ."

WHITEHEAD