Mugabe massaging own political ego

President Robert Mugabe’s visit to the United Nations indicated that massaging his own political ego was more important for President Robert Mugabe than facing head-on the problems his government had created at home.

This was the view of the Daily News on Mugabe’s trip to the UN which The Herald had hailed as a failure of the United States imposed smart sanctions.

Full cable:

Viewing cable 02HARARE1145, MEDIA REPORT ON MUGABE’S VISIT TO THE UN

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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS HARARE 001145

SIPDIS

AF/PD FOR COX AND ROBERTSON, AF/S FOR KRAFT AND SCHLACHTER,

AF/RA FOR DIPALMA, INR/R/MR, NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: ZI PREL PHUM

SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT ON MUGABE’S VISIT TO THE UN

¶1.   Under headline “One trip to New York won’t change

much”

the independent daily “The Daily News” dedicated its

May 14 editorial to President Mugabe’s May 8-11

Trip to UN headquarters in New York. Excerpts:

¶2.   “President Mugabe ignored the crisis in his own

country

and flew to the UN in New York just to cock a snook at

his domestic and international detractors. . . It would

seem that massaging his own political ego is much more

vital to the President than the prospect of facing head-

on the problems his government has created for the last

22 years. The conference on children at the UN was

important in its own way, but not for a head of state

whose country has not recovered from the political fall-

out of an election condemned as woefully flawed by

everybody not particularly starry-eyed about the false

glory of ‘regaining our heritage’ – the violence-riddled

land reform program. . .”

SULLIVAN

(44 VIEWS)