Zimbabwe Paper Appears To Threaten Brit

(AP)  Zimbabwe's state-run newspaper appeared to threaten a British diplomat it accused of supporting government opponents on Tuesday, suggesting on its front page that she could be welcomed home "in a body bag" if she persisted.

Britain immediately summoned the Zimbabwean ambassador in London to explain the article in the Herald, calling the threats "shocking and absolutely unacceptable."

Tensions in Zimbabwe have been high since police violently broke up a prayer meeting last month, detaining and severely beating the country's most prominent opposition leader and other members of the Movement for Democratic Change. President Robert Mugabe has warned opponents they will be "bashed" again if they incite unrest and has threatened to expel Western diplomats if they meddle in local politics.

Trucks of riot police drove through Zimbabwe's capital, and military helicopters flew overhead Tuesday on the first day of a national strike to protest deepening economic hardships blamed on Mugabe's government.

On Tuesday, the Herald newspaper made what seemed like a death threat against British Embassy political officer Gillian Dare, calling her the "the purse holder and financier" of an alleged terror campaign by the Movement for Democratic Change.

"It will be a pity for her family to welcome her home at Heathrow Airport in a body bag just like some of her colleagues from Iraq and Afghanistan," said an article on the newspaper's front page.

Dare, "labeled in some sections of the media as a British spy, could one day be caught in the crossfire as she plays night nurse to arrested MDC hooligans," the newspaper said.

A British Foreign Office spokeswoman called the threats "shocking and absolutely unacceptable" and said Zimbabwe's ambassador was called to a meeting in London with Permanent Undersecretary Peter Ricketts, who "emphasized that we expect Zimbabwe to offer protection to our diplomats."

Dare remained at the embassy working as normal, she said, speaking on the government's customary condition of anonymity.

During Tuesday's strike, soldiers armed with automatic rifles stood at intersections in Harare's main industrial district where some factory gates were closed, along with several banks, shops and fast food stands. Most downtown shops were open, and commuter buses were full of passengers.

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[randalds]

Posted by Agnim at 09:00 PM : Apr 04, 2007

See? Like I said, Agnim is a troll. Please do not feed this troll.

[agnim]

"AND its pretty clear to many that the AFrican nations simply do not have the wherewithal or the knowledge to stand on their own and be self-sufficient.
Posted by NYCKATE at 04:12 PM : Apr 04, 2007"

LOL
Do you have any idea for how many hundreds of thousands of years the Africans have been surviving and thriving IN SELF-SUFFICIENCY on the continent of Africa?

Matter of fact, without Africans being self-sufficient forever on the planet, no human mutants would exist anywhere else on the planet today to have the ignorance, folly and audacity to think that Africans can't be self-sufficient! LOL

Being a child 'left behind' by our inadequate mis-education system and not being able to think much, unfortunate American minds like yours easily swallow the nonsensical and asinine anti-African propaganda.

And you being of Irish stock, I'm more than a bit disappointed in you. LOL

I bet you also easily swallow the propaganda for the bush wars, and the excuses for devilish slaughtering so many Iraqi women and children? LOL

[agnim]

"Agnim- ur a idiot Britain already won the battle of Britain way before America joined the war, so even if America dint join in there would still be an English speaking GREAT BRITAIN.
Posted by skunk_monkey at 03:55 PM : Apr 04, 2007"

So the Sun has set on the evil empire of the brits; and this Skunk is now in a state of a drunken DREAM! LOL

The brits lost the empire as a result of being plastered during the war!

And the only reason the brits did not lose the island nation in addition was due to timely American intervention, which Churchill groveled and literally sold his wrinkled arse to gain! LOL

[agnim]

"Not only was US entry into WWII NOT foolish it was also NOT altruisitic - we did not enter WWII to 'save' anyone but ourselves - we entered WWII 2.5 years AFTER it started and AFTER we were attacked by one of Hitler's allies and then Germany declared War on US as well.
Posted by NYCKATE at 03:55 PM : Apr 04, 2007"

Try recall that Churchill came with tongue hanging out to do even more arse kissing than the poodle phony blair is doing these days, in order to get the US to save the brits' sorry arses!

The brits had to prostitute themselves and pledge to surrender EVERYTHING of value in the evil empire, including the empire, in order for the US to DECEPTIVELY (to the American people) enter the war on british behalf!

The US could have EASILY waited out any declaration of war by the Germans, before responding when the Germans were a lot weaker!

In other words, Katty, the US DID NOT have to do anything to be winner of world war 2! And that's a historical fact.

The US entered the war to save british behinds!
That does not mean that the act was completely altruistic; but just having the APPEARANCE of altruism paid a lot more dividends!

I'm not sure where you are getting your understanding of history in our mis-education system. One child left behind maybe? LOL

[nyckate]

skunk_monkey -- welll as someone who had both grandfathers fight in Irish war of independance I'd have to say that the largese of the British hasn't been so great to those they colonized - I've even heard some british make the totally ludicrious arguement that the countries colonized by britian should be grateful for the buildings and road britian left behind!! Sheesh.

No Empire is 'kind' or 'gentle' to those countries it occupies - while Ghandi preached peace adn was even being praised for it bu british India natives were being massacred by british troops - it's not like UK landed on Ireland's shores or India's shores or Africa shores wondering, gee, what can we contribute to make these people better/happier/wealthier - in fact during Irish Famine tons of foods were shipped out of Ireland to England - which is of course why the english paved those roads to begin with!!

So let's not get too carried away - US didn't enter WWII to be altruistic and Britian didn't colonize to be altruistic either!

[nyckate]

I can understand that the African nations want the 'white man' gone - of course their fellow africans now living throughout the restof the world would not be too happy to be returned by force to Africa and neither would Africa be happy to take them back!

AND its pretty clear to many that the AFrican nations simply do not have the wherewithal or the knowledge to stand on their own and be self-sufficient. There is no 'white government' in Sudan and they can't survive without lots of aide so we need them to become more realistic and accept the training and knowledge that the 'white nations' have been trying to give them - we need them to be self-sufficient and contributing members of the world - the 'whiteman' hasn't forced the african nations to ignore agricultural training or medical training - they take the aide and blow it - their government are corrupt and steal from their own poor and starving. Again, other nations not to blame for that.

[skunk_monkey]

Agnim- ur a idiot Britain already won the battle of Britain way before America joined the war, so even if America dint join in there would still be an English speaking GREAT BRITAIN. Also if it wasn%u2019t for Britain fighting the Germans solo for a year Japan and Germans would have been unstoppable. don%u2019t forget from the start of the war Britain 2 was fighting the *** and it wasn%u2019t like America wonted to fight for freedom of Europe they was dragged into it

As for evil empire, Britain was the first country in the world to be a democracy, the first to abolish the slave trade, we abolished capital punishment and I could go on for hours

The truth is Britain has always punched above our belt

[nyckate]

Agnim - Good Lord - I Can't stand it when fellow Americans like you are not only so darned ignorant but stupid as well.

Not only was US entry into WWII NOT foolish it was also NOT altruisitic - we did not enter WWII to 'save' anyone but ourselves - we entered WWII 2.5 years AFTER it started and AFTER we were attacked by one of Hitler's allies and then Germany declared War on US as well.

See - you may be too ignorant to know when you are being ignorant - but even you can see that you know nothing about US history other than what you learned in comic strips - can't ya?

[randalds]

I love it when MF's like Agnim get so stressed out about us Brits, we have obviously done him some harm which is really good. We've plenty more where that came from, so better be a good boy and shut up, Cretin.
Posted by drinuk at 12:56 PM : Apr 04, 2007

He's a troll. He /she/it has no real opinion. All it does is to see a story, figure out where most thinking people stand on the issue and then it comes up with the most outrageous opinion it can think of that goes against most everyone else. It does this because it's mentally ill and starved for attention. For instance if most of the opinions in this particular issue went against Great Britain you can be 100% certain that Agnim would be screaming in their defense just to stir sh*it in the other direction. Like I said it has no opinion of it's own and is just a troll.

[drinuk]

I love it when MF's like Agnim get so stressed out about us Brits, we have obviously done him some harm which is really good. We've plenty more where that came from, so better be a good boy and shut up, Cretin.