HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - A Zimbabwe Foreign Ministry official gatecrashed the U.S. embassy's July 4 celebrations Wednesday to criticize the outgoing ambassador. Samuel Mhango criticized Ambassador Christopher Dell for remarks he made Wednesday. Dell commented on the assault by police of opposition leaders in Harare in March, the country's worsening economic crisis and what Dell called ``the growing climate of desperation and oppression'' in Zimbabwe.
| Good for Dell. That's what our ambassadors are supposed to do. |
``Diplomats are supposed to be bridge builders not bridge busters,'' Mhango said. ``We believe ... that national day receptions such as this one are occasions for us to congratulate each other, to say positive things about each other. They are not occasions to attack or abuse each other.''
| That's rather .. Soviet, doncha think? |
Dell said afterward Mhango was not invited. He asked to speak at the podium to several hundred guests. Dell told guests he himself was not invited to Zimbabwe's Independence Day celebrations on April 18, ``so I did not attend. I see the same rules don't seem to apply in reverse.''
U.S officials said later Mhango told them the foreign ministry was considering banning speeches at foreign national day functions.
Dell, along with independent economic commentators, have recently predicted runaway inflation will likely cause full-scale economic collapse by year end.
``One wonders what authority some have when giving specific time frames for the meltdown of the Zimbabwe economy. This leaves the impression the meltdown is being engineered from outside Zimbabwe,'' Mhango said.
| Nah, your boy Bob is capable of this all by himself. |
``Zimbabwe brooks no interference in its internal affairs ... Zimbabweans should be left to solve their own problems,'' Mhango said, reading from a prepared text.
| Blusters well, doesn't he? Wonder how he'll bluster the day the government is overthrown. |
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