The United States embassy complained after the deportation of American journalist Andrew Meldrum that immigration officials had lied to them and his lawyers that they were not deporting him.
“By any measure, the GoZ’s behaviour during the May 16 deportation of Andrew Meldrum was a travesty. Immigration officials suspended due process, lied to Meldrum and his lawyer, lied to Embassy consular officials, defied 3 separate High Court orders prohibiting Meldrum’s deportation, and denied Embassy officers consular access to Meldrum after he was detained and taken to the airport.”
Full cable:
Viewing cable 03HARARE963, MEDIA REPORT GOZ DEPORTS ANDREW MELDRUM;
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UNCLAS HARARE 000963
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
SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT GOZ DEPORTS ANDREW MELDRUM;
HARARE
¶1. Under headline “Arrests, deportations: Government
running scared” the independent weekly “The Standard”
dedicated its May 18 editorial to criticizing the
Government of Zimbabwe for deporting Andrew Meldrum, a
United States national and Harare-based correspondent
of the British newspaper “The Guardian,” despite a High
Court order preventing the expulsion. Excerpts follow:
¶2. “Zimbabwe has once again shot itself in the foot –
and in the full glare of international media, for that
matter – by deliberately flouting its own laws and
throwing caution to the wind just to allow junior
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo and the Department
of Immigration to settle old scores. Who would want to
invest in a country with a government, which can deport
an innocent journalist in total defiance of a court
order.? There is no doubt that the government, and
Moyo, were highly embarrassed after Meldrum
successfully challenged their deportation order in the
High Court in July last year. . . The way the
government. . .handled the Meldrum affair therefore
makes a mockery of Harare’s monotonous and tired
complaints that Zimbabwe does not deserve the bad press
it is attracting overseas. What better way to attract
a negative international image can there be than the
primitive, amateurish, unlawful and vindictive
deportation of an innocent journalist. . .?”
¶3. Comment: By any measure, the GoZ’s behavior
during the May 16 deportation of Andrew Meldrum was a
travesty. Immigration officials suspended due process,
lied to Meldrum and his lawyer (“we don’t intend to
deport you”), lied to Embassy consular officials
(“Meldrum is not at the airport”), defied 3 separate
High Court orders prohibiting Meldrum’s deportation,
and denied Embassy officers consular access to Meldrum
after he was detained and taken to the airport. As the
Standard’s editorial points out, the Meldrum
deportation seriously undermines any grounds the GoZ
may have had to complain about unjustly negative
publicity.
WHITEHEAD
(27 VIEWS)
