News / National
I was not barred from Mujuru home: US Ambassador
26 Aug 2011 at 06:04hrs | Views
The US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Charles Ray, has denied press reports that he was blocked from meeting Vice President Joice Mujuru at her Chisipite home in Harare last week Tuesday. Ray went to see Mrs Mujuru to offer his condolences, following the suspicious death in a farm house fire of her husband, retired army General Solomon Mujuru. But some news agencies reported that security personnel denied him access.
Responding to questions on SW Radio Africa's Question Time programme, the Ambassador said he travelled to Mujuru's house which is just a few kilometres down the road from his own residence. He said: "There were a lot of people and I chose out of my own volition to stand in a line with everyone else. I don't like this 'I am a VIP I get to push people aside' treatment."
Ray said Mrs Mujuru had "been greeting people all morning, had to go to a meeting and then was gonna take a rest. This was communicated directly to me by a senior member of her staff with apologies because they understood that I had a fairly busy schedule and wouldn't be able to stay. So I asked him to relay my condolences and I left." Ray went back later in the afternoon (5:30pm) with a group of ambassadors and was able to meet directly with Vice President Mujuru.
"So the fact is that the security personnel at the residence were very professional and very polite and I have no complaints about the performance of their duties. There was no effort made by anyone to block me from doing anything," Ray said. Explaining the inaccurate press reports he said: "The situation here has become so politicised and so polarized that people take events and depending on their particular view points spin them to support their viewpoint rather than reporting accurately."
Ambassador Ray bemoaned the "lack of journalistic professionalism" saying "if you read some of the things some of the media have accused me of doing, you wonder if I'm not some re-incarnation of Machiavelli instead of a simple country boy who happens to be the American ambassador here."
SW Radio Africa also asked him what he made of the death of General Solomon Mujuru and he said: "I would like to echo what Vice President Mujuru said herself, let's wait until the facts are known and investigations are completed. I don't as a rule engage in speculation about things I don't have facts on."
Commenting on the vicious attacks on him in the state media Ray said, with his wife, they had "raised four children and I'm the oldest child in a family with 3 younger brothers and sisters. I am accustomed to temper tantrums and the way I deal with that is ignore it until they run out of steam." He said he had a job to do and along with representing US interests in Zimbabwe, he would work towards improving the lives of many Zimbabweans, "everything else is just background noise."
NB: The full interview with US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray will be broadcast next week Wednesday on Question Time. He talks about a variety of issues affecting Zimbabwe and US relations.
Responding to questions on SW Radio Africa's Question Time programme, the Ambassador said he travelled to Mujuru's house which is just a few kilometres down the road from his own residence. He said: "There were a lot of people and I chose out of my own volition to stand in a line with everyone else. I don't like this 'I am a VIP I get to push people aside' treatment."
Ray said Mrs Mujuru had "been greeting people all morning, had to go to a meeting and then was gonna take a rest. This was communicated directly to me by a senior member of her staff with apologies because they understood that I had a fairly busy schedule and wouldn't be able to stay. So I asked him to relay my condolences and I left." Ray went back later in the afternoon (5:30pm) with a group of ambassadors and was able to meet directly with Vice President Mujuru.
"So the fact is that the security personnel at the residence were very professional and very polite and I have no complaints about the performance of their duties. There was no effort made by anyone to block me from doing anything," Ray said. Explaining the inaccurate press reports he said: "The situation here has become so politicised and so polarized that people take events and depending on their particular view points spin them to support their viewpoint rather than reporting accurately."
Ambassador Ray bemoaned the "lack of journalistic professionalism" saying "if you read some of the things some of the media have accused me of doing, you wonder if I'm not some re-incarnation of Machiavelli instead of a simple country boy who happens to be the American ambassador here."
SW Radio Africa also asked him what he made of the death of General Solomon Mujuru and he said: "I would like to echo what Vice President Mujuru said herself, let's wait until the facts are known and investigations are completed. I don't as a rule engage in speculation about things I don't have facts on."
Commenting on the vicious attacks on him in the state media Ray said, with his wife, they had "raised four children and I'm the oldest child in a family with 3 younger brothers and sisters. I am accustomed to temper tantrums and the way I deal with that is ignore it until they run out of steam." He said he had a job to do and along with representing US interests in Zimbabwe, he would work towards improving the lives of many Zimbabweans, "everything else is just background noise."
NB: The full interview with US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray will be broadcast next week Wednesday on Question Time. He talks about a variety of issues affecting Zimbabwe and US relations.
Source - swradio
