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EU Ambassador fumes at The Herald's 'freedom of speech'

by Staff reporter
03 Sep 2019 at 03:34hrs | Views
President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government appeared determined to commit diplomatic hara-kiri - ritual suicide by disembowelment with a sword, which used to be practised in Japan - with its officials and supporters continuing to act rashly to Zimbabwe's detriment.

According to the Daily News, this comes as forthright European Union (EU) ambassador to Zimbabwe, Tim Olkkonen, was left seething at the weekend after incessant and ill-advised attacks in State media on the equally outspoken United States ambassador to Harare, Brian Nichols.

It also comes after Olkkonen issued yet another stinging public rebuke to Harare last week over the deteriorating human rights situation in the country — saying bluntly that Harare now risked losing future funding unless it effected much-needed political reforms.

Zimbabwe has witnessed opposition and civil society members being indiscriminately arrested and tortured by suspected State security agents over the past month, after the main opposition MDC party called for nationwide demonstrations against the country's economic rot.

This has attracted sharp criticism from the EU and the US, who have both urged the government to bring perpetrators of such crimes to book.

With Zimbabwe's re-engagements efforts with the West already looking shaky, State media has not helped the situation over the past few weeks by launching vicious, and often personal attacks on government critics, including influential diplomats such as Olkkonen and Nichols.

On Saturday, State newspapers appeared to go into overdrive in this mission - claiming that Nichols had a penchant for supporting violence, in an opinion piece that harked back to the desperate last few years in power former president Robert Mugabe.

"On other news I find these continued ad hominem attacks on my esteemed colleague Brian Nichols very insulting and in extremely bad taste," Olkkonen wrote on social media in response - suggesting a further deterioration in the relationship between Harare and the West.



Source - Daily News
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