GOVERNMENT-OWNED PAPER TAKES OFFENSE AT U.S.

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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