U.S. Envoy Speaks Out Against Zimbabwe Again

HARARE, Zimbabwe, May 4 -- U.S. Ambassador Christopher W. Dell has renewed his public criticism of President Robert Mugabe's government, telling a group of journalism students that a crackdown on press freedoms in Zimbabwe has contributed to the country's steep economic decline by impairing the free flow of ideas.

The speech, made Wednesday in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city, to commemorate World Press Freedom Day, came six months after Dell was threatened with expulsion for accusing Mugabe's government of destroying the economy through mismanagement and corruption.

Dell dealt only with the issue of press freedoms Wednesday. But his speech included sharply worded passages that contrasted Zimbabwe with other countries in southern Africa that are experiencing economic growth and increasing freedoms.

"It is undeniable that Zimbabwe's economy is in a downward spiral unmatched by any other country not at war," said Dell, according to a transcript provided by the U.S. Embassy. "And yet, if you rely on the state media, things aren't that bad. In fact, the outlook is very rosy indeed and recovery is only months away."

Dell's speech created a stir in Zimbabwe. The Financial Gazette, one of three independent newspapers, all weeklies, that the government has not shut down, carried the front-page banner headline "Dell slams govt again" and a long article on the speech in its Thursday editions.

The official response was far more muted than in November, when Mugabe's spokesman said the president "was extremely unhappy" about what he characterized as "an attack on the government of Zimbabwe."

In October, Dell was briefly detained for entering a section of a national garden deemed off-limits by police. Officials later accused him of intentionally provoking a diplomatic incident.

On Thursday, Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya played down Dell's remarks in comments to Zimbabwean reporters. In a phone interview from Beatrice, a farming town south of Harare, Jokonya said that Dell was "a little bit disingenuous" but that he knew of no discussions about reprimanding the ambassador.

"He speaks for a sovereign government and says things as he sees them," Jokonya said.

Jokonya also said that freedom of expression is flourishing in Zimbabwe and that the United States has limitations on speech that are "much more draconian" than those found in Zimbabwe. He called the USA Patriot Act "absolutely horrifying."

Dell gave a far different account of press freedom in Zimbabwe in his speech, noting that all daily newspapers and radio and television stations were owned by the government. The nation's rapidly shrinking economy, he said, was a direct result.

"Look behind nearly every economic dysfunction and shortage in this country -- unavailability of fertilizer and fuel, underutilization of land, burgeoning corruption -- and you will likely find some impediment to a free flow of information or the freedom to act on that information," Dell said.

He added: "Such statist systems -- with their obsession to control political and economic information -- didn't work in 1930s Soviet Union or 1950s China, and it seems doubtful that they'll ever work elsewhere."