Maravi

(HERALD) Botswana, US propaganda pact exposed

Botswana, US propaganda pact exposed
Herald Reporter

Botswana entered into a bilateral agreement with the United States to beam anti-government messages into Zimbabwe and recently completed the upgrading of a transmitter to scale up the pirate broadcasts, it has emerged.

In a statement in which Voice of America’s Studio 7 contradicted itself in trying to deny that it is a pirate broadcaster, an official of the subversive station said they were beaming into Zimbabwe under an agreement between Botswana and the United States.

By hosting the pirate stations, Botswana and Madagascar — which hosts a relay station for Voice of the People — are violating International Telecommunications Union protocols by supporting the broadcasting of the hate messages.

The two countries are also in contempt of Sadc and the African Union as the guarantors of the Global Political Agreement signed by Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC.

VOA director of Africa broadcasting Gwen Dillard was quoted by another pirate broadcaster, SW Radio Africa, as saying the US and Botswana had a "government-to-government broadcast agreement" to beam the anti-Zimbabwe propaganda and this was not illegal.

However, she then admitted that they were beaming illegally into Zimbabwe and would continue doing so until Government "liberalised the media space".

Yesterday, the Secretary for Media, Information and Publicity Mr George Charamba said the government-to-government agreement between Gaborone and Washington was in violation of ITU protocols, Zimbabwe’s sovereignty and the Sadc-guaranteed and AU-recognised GPA.

"Neither America nor Botswana can enter into an agreement to violate the sovereignty and interests of a third party.

"None of them represent the interests of Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans. Besides, the existence of such an agreement is no justification for beaming hate messages to Zimbabwe.

"The operative laws governing international broadcasts are not premised on Botswana and America’s bilateral agreements but on ITU protocols that regulate the use of frequencies.

"I challenge VOA to show the world the agreement between Botswana and America and how it encompasses Zimbabwe," he said.

Mr Charamba said Botswana was suggesting it had usurped the sovereignty of a neighbour by entering into an agreement to attack the country and this made the resolution of this matter all the more urgent.

"We know that they have recently completed upgrading a transmitter site with the specific intention of upgrading the media terrorism against Zimbabwe and its people."

On the issue of "opening up media space", Mr Charamba said VOA was trying to cloud the issue by not dealing with the real matter at hand.

"This country has had a State broadcasting monopoly since day one of radio services.

"Why is it that VOA never beamed messages into the country during UDI?

"Why didn’t they do this all throughout Rhodesia if they cared so much about the people of Zimbabwe?

"How about during that thing called Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, why did they not broadcast?

"Why is it they never found it necessary to broadcast into Zimbabwe at independence and they only saw the need to start when we embarked on the land reform programme? What is the principle at work here?"

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it will make a formal complaint to Botswana about the succour it is giving to purveyors of hate messages.

Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ambassador Joey Bimha this week said Zimbabwe made a formal complaint last year through the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation and they would soon raise the matter with Gaborone, probably through the Committee on Defence and Security and the Joint Permanent Commission.

Botswana ironically hosts the Sadc secretariat but has been at the forefront of violating the GPA that the bloc has said it will act as guarantors of.

The activities of the pirate radio stations and external interference in Zimbabwe’s domestic affairs are some of the main outstanding issues in the implementation of the GPA.

Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC negotiators have been meeting over the past week to resolve the outstanding issues in line with commitments made at a recent Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security summit in Mozambique.

Apart from pirate radio broadcasts of hate messages, an issue sources said seized negotiators was that of the reported establishment of parallel government structures in the PM’s Office. The Public Service Commission has since said members of the parallel government will be barred from entering Government offices.

Labels: BOTSWANA, COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, NEOCOLONIALISM, PROPAGANDA, USA, VOA

posted by MrK @ 6:47 PM