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

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 
TAGS: PREL PHUM KPAO KMDR ZI
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