GOVERNMENT PAPER ACCUSES U.S. AND BRITAIN OF

UNCLAS HARARE 002480 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/PD, AF/S, AF/RA, AF/PDPA NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER LONDON FOR GURNEY PARIS FOR NEARY NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PHUM KPAO KMDR ZI SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT PAPER ACCUSES U.S. AND BRITAIN OF "GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY" ¶1. Under the headline "Zimbabwe is no colony" the government-controlled weekly "Sunday News" dedicated its November 10 editorial to accusing the United States and Britain of practicing "gunboat diplomacy." Excerpts: ¶2. ". . .This week, the Deputy Secretary of State for African Affairs in the U.S. Government, Mark Bellamy, was quoted as saying Washington is plotting interventionist measures that will challenge Zimbabwe's sovereignty. Simply put, the American warmongers are planning a military invasion of Zimbabwe and are setting up the pretext for such an operation by making outrageous allegations of human rights abuse, breakdown of the rule of law and the persecution of opposition members. While this revelation has an American face, the real schemer is Tony Blair. The sheer hypocrisy of this Anglo-Saxon alliance is phenomenal. By any measure of international law, Western leaders have been some of the modern era's greatest prima facie terrorists and war criminals. . . Ranging from President Bill Clinton's bombing of Sudan and Madeline Albright's veto of an international rescue for Rwanda when she was U.S. Ambassador to the UN, to the Bush dynasty's genocide of millions of innocent Iraqi children, there is plenty of evidence of their crimes against humanity. It would be folly to believe that the heavily militarized foreign policy of Britain and the U.S. is driven by a genuine crusade to serve humanity. Rather, it is driven by their obsession with political control and economic dominance. So, in all respects there is a resurgence of 19th century gunboat diplomacy in an era when 21st century internationalism had given so much false promise for world peace and prosperity. . ." SULLIVAN