GOVERNMENT-OWNED PAPER TAKES OFFENSE AT U.S.

UNCLAS HARARE 000220 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: GOVERNMENT-OWNED PAPER TAKES OFFENSE AT U.S. TRAVEL WARNING ¶1. Under headline "Zim must not bow to hate campaign" the government-controlled daily "The Herald" used its January 30 editorial to dismiss the January 27 travel warning. Excerpts follow: ¶2. "The travel warning issued by the United States State Department advising its citizens against traveling to Zimbabwe while also urging those already in the country to consider leaving is most unfortunate. The basis on which the warning was issued is unfounded and only goes to show the extent to which the U.S. and its ally Britain will stop at nothing in their hate campaign against Zimbabwe. The U.S. State Department alleges that this country is in the midst of political, economic and humanitarian crises that have affected security - nothing could be far from the truth (sic). "There is peace and stability in the country and a few incidents of political violence reported recently cannot be used to tarnish the entire country's image. Worse cases of violence are being reported in the U.S. itself everyday and other countries but no one has made noise about them. . . We are all too aware of the fact that all this is being done to frustrate Zimbabwe's chances to host next month's Cricket World Cup. . . SULLIVAN