MEDIA REACTION CUBA/ZIM/U. S. RELATIONS; HARARE

UNCLAS HARARE 001838 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS IRAQ PD FOR SMITH, PINESS AND ROOKARD 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 CUBA/ZIM/U. S. RELATIONS; HARARE ¶1. Under headline "Cuba, Zimbabwe lead the way" the government-controlled weekly "The Sunday News" dedicated its September 7 editorial to demonizing the West, especially the United States and Britain, for allegedly maltreating Cuba and Zimbabwe. Excerpts follow: ¶2. "Newspaper pictures and television footage of President Mugabe chatting with President Fidel Castro of Cuba in Havana this week are some of the most potent images of the anti-imperialist movement that the world has seen in recent times. . .Today, the two nations have everything in common because the United States has imposed sanctions on Cuba while Britain has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe. . .There is now every indication that the U. S. and its cronies have sought to isolate and demonize Cuba, not because President Castro has no respect for human rights alleged by warmongers in Washington DC, but because Cuba has prospered socio-economically even under U. S. attack. . .The Americans are baffled how a Third World country like Cuba can brush off sanctions and actually develop outstanding education and health delivery services. Whether the world cares to believe it or not, the fact remains that literacy and infant mortality rates are better in this socialist nation than they are in the capitalist U. ¶S. . .Zimbabwe's Third Chimurenga (land reform program) has captured the imagination of the world, not because this country is the center of the universe, but because our land reform program is the most intriguing example of an African people confronting the hegemony of imperial powers in the brave pursuit of social justice. Cuba, Zimbabwe and indeed the rest of the Third World must continue to fight for social justice in a world dominated by Western imperial overloads who use globalization as an instrument of plunder and oppression. . .And to think that Western countries are always telling us that globalization has been a roaring success and provides the only hope for civilization. This propaganda is as treacherous as President George W. Bush's outrageous claim that Iraq President Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. . . ." SULLIVAN