Moyo tells US to 'go to hell'

Harare - Zimbabwe's information minister has dismissed new US sanctions which target him and other members of President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, saying "imperialist" Washington could go to hell, a newspaper said on Thursday.

"These Americans who are pontificating about human rights and democracy would not recognise these things even if they hit them on their faces. So go and tell the imperialist to go to hell," Information Minister Jonathan Moyo was quoted as saying in Thursday's edition of the state-run Herald daily.

The United States on Tuesday said it was widening an existing sanctions regime against Zimbabwe to include seven government-related businesses.

The state department said the sanctions will apply to commercial farms "seized" by Moyo; Zimbabwe Defence Industries, a state-owned arms maker and M&S Syndicate, a holding group owned by the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).

Moyo denied that he owned three farms included among the blacklisted Zimbabwe businesses, insisting he owned just one - but would not be selling his produce to the US.

"Hamburger-eating imperialists"

"I am flattered that these hamburger-eating imperialists are interested in my tomatoes... but I am sending them to Mbare Musika," Moyo said, referring to a popular produce market in the capital Harare.

On Wednesday, US President George W Bush renewed sanctions he imposed on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and other government officials a year ago for allegedly undermining democracy in the southern African country.

Bush said the Zimbabwe government was causing a breakdown of the rule of law, economic instability, and fomenting politically motivated violence.

Meanwhile, Canberra on Thursday tightened its sanctions against the Mugabe regime, barring managers of state businesses from visiting Australia.

There was no immediate reaction to the news by the Zimbabwe government.

Last month the EU extended sanctions it had imposed against Zimbabwe to include an arms embargo as well as travel restrictions and a freeze on possible overseas assets of 95 government officials, including Mugabe.

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Weapons of mass condoms


Harare - The United States was trying to remove Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe from power with millions of condoms as weapons, state radio in Zimbabwe said on Wednesday.

It said President George Bush's regime was behind the "rebranding" of prophylactics that carry a bright red and yellow sticker advertising "revolutionary condoms" and a message urging Zimbabweans to "get up, stand up!"

A bulletin said condoms carrying a sticker with "an oppositional political message" were being distributed throughout Zimbabwe "in what appears to be collusion between opposition groups and a United States-based condom manufacturer".

The radio said the appearance of the redecorated condom packets was "not surprising, since the United States government has made it clear it is working toward changing of the regime in Zimbabwe, using, among other things, the media".

The sticker also bears the name of a non-violent underground group of activists with the name and motto, "Enough!", an appeal to Zimbabweans to stop tolerating abuse by Mugabe's government.

Bob Marley performed for Mugabe

The motto appears in graffiti, and is also the name of a news sheet secretly distributed.

The words on the condom are from a composition by reggae legend Bob Marley who sang, Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights, get up, stand up, don't give up the fight.

He performed the song in front of Mugabe and thousands of ecstatic Zimbabweans at the country's independence celebrations in 1980.

Two weeks ago, recipients of the news sheet found the "revolutionary condom" inside.

No comment could be obtained from the United States embassy, but an activist who asked not to be named said: "The Americans had nothing to do with it."

He said "a few hundred" condoms had been bought, and locally printed stickers had been glued on before handing them out.

The bulletin linked the "revolutionary" condoms to Population Services International, a Washington-based, non-profit organisation working for child and maternal health HIV prevention.

PSI provides condoms for aid programmes in Zimbabwe, but by far the biggest provider is the United States Agency for International Development with a budget this year of $8.5m that will provide 89 million American-manufactured condoms to Zimbabwean couples.

"If the Americans had wanted to achieve regime change in Zimbabwe, they could have used something more forceful than condoms," said a Western diplomat.

"They must have saved the lives of thousands of Zimbabweans. It's a weird mind that sees the condom programme as a way of overthrowing Mugabe."

"...weird mind..."

Now there is an understatement.

8.5 million dollars for condoms??????

What US congressman authored THAT legislation??

JDS

JDS

It's not relevant to the thread but I appreciated your quote at the end of your post. (This one time only visitor to Africa is still under its spell) The quote reminds me of something I saw on a plaque on a wall behind a bar in Panama City (Panama)many years ago. I have a way of seeming to memorize or file away various snatches of language whether prose or poetry and I remember these lines : " The spell of the tropics - it gets you worse than rum - you get away and you swear you'll stay -but she calls and back you come".

Al Sharpton?????