Zimbabwe Report
US ambassador gets Temporary Reprieve from Expulsion from Zimbabwe
by Scott MorganSunday, November 13, 2005
The ongoing and increasingly entertaining scandal regarding the United States ambassador to Zimbabwe the Honorable Christopher Dell may have hit a temporary impasse. Earlier this week state controlled Media outlets in Zimbabwe were gleefully reporting that the ambassador would soon be expelled from the strife torn african State. This is not the first time that ambassador dell has had a run in with the tyrannical regime that currently rules in Harare. But it is apparent that the next incident will be the last for the diplomat who has represented the US in several troublesome locales.
Even though he received a formal protest letter that demanded that he cease and desist from breaking the Internal Laws of Zimbabwe the ambassador has flown back to Washington for Consultations. after the diatribe that President Mugabe launched against the US and British Government earlier this summer at the meeting of the World Food Program in Rome and at the UN General assembly in New York there are rumors that the US will modify and strengthen the sanctions currently in place against the ruling ZaNU-PF (Zimbabwe african National Union-Patriotic Front) that have been in place since 2002.
One may ask what did the ambassador do to receive the scorn of President Mugabe? Well according to Zimbabwean Security authorities Mr. Dell attempted espionage one night by approaching a secure area late one evening. He was in the National Botanical Gardens in Harare and the secure area he approached was a seldom used Presidential Palace. The area is according to witnesses very poorly lit. and he was in custody for a short while. One official stated that if he wasn’t an ambassador then he may have been shot.
But the incident that caused the Zimbabwean Government to lose control was a speech the ambassador gave at a american Funded Seminary called africa University in Mutare. In the speech the ambassador stated that misrule and corruption are at the core of the Economic and Political crises that plague Zimbabwe. By making that statement the government charged that the ambassador was "Interfering with the Internal affairs of Zimbabwe" which is a crime that falls under the jurisdiction of the Vienna Conventions.
after the scandal broke the state media outlets began to smear this diplomat who has the ability to speak about what he has seen for over a year. a reporter for a state media outlet said that he was a "rabble-rousing ambassador doing the bidding of the MDC". and President Mugabe himself said "Tell Him that I can’t even spell ‘Dell’ but I can spell Hell and he might be there one of these days." The State Department did back its man in Harare by stating " This Propaganda aims to distract and confuse the Zimbabwean people about the real cause of their distress. " If this happens to a diplomat that has the Intestinal Fortitude to speak about what he sees imagine what those that are suffering go through
