FOUR United States nationals contracted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reportedly sneaked into the country last month without notifying the authorities as per protocol and proceeded to hold unsanctioned and covert meetings, which were to inform Washington’s adversarial foreign policy towards Zimbabwe.
The quartet — Brenda Lee Pearson, Norma Kriger, Sarah Logan
and Loretta Bass — work for a US government affiliate, Navanti Group, and their
mission was ostensibly to carry out a “democracy and governance assessment” to
help USAID design its local programmes.
However, the team was busted and deported on February 17
after it was established their real agenda was more focused on seeking “a more
effective method to effect regime change in the country”, informed sources told
The Sunday Mail yesterday.
Curiously, the quartet entered the country without prior
communication with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and
went on to conduct assessment activities in the country, thereby violating the
Geneva Convention.
After discovering that their team was being shadowed, the
US Embassy, on behalf of Navanti Group, reportedly notified the Government on
February 5, requesting meetings between Pearson and Kriger and Government
ministers, institutions and the Chapter 12 commissions.
The commissions include the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC); the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC); the Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC); the
Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC); and the National Peace and Reconciliation
Commission (NPRC).
But the arrival of Logan and Bass on February 5 for the
same mission was kept under wraps.
Since arriving separately in early February, the team
nicodemously held meetings with leaders of anti-government civic society
organisations, journalists, some senior opposition figures and Western
diplomats.
Sources indicated that on February 8, for example, Logan
and Bass met Danish AID official David Takawira and later on engaged with
Swedish Embassy Secretary Peeter Kamaan, who is suspected to be an intelligence
officer.
On the same day, they also met Dr Frances Lovemore, the
director of the Counselling Services Unit, over dinner.
The following day, they had a meeting with Mike Davis, an
official from the Combined Harare Residents Association, before contacting
ZIMCODD director John Maketo on February 12.
Their meeting also saw them having engagements with British
Embassy official Peter Thomas (February 13); British Foreign, Commonwealth and
Development Office official Nikolai Hutchinson (February 13); Labour, Economics
and Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe director Godfrey Kanyenze
(February 13) ; and Mass Public Opinion Institute director Eldred Masunungure
(February 13).
On Valentine’s Day, they linked up with Pearson at the US
Embassy and met with Larry Socha, the State Department public diplomacy
officer.
On the same day, Logan and Bass had dinner with Valery
Sviuya, director of the Legal Resources Foundation.
On February 15, the team met Heart and Soul TV journalist
Blessed Mhlanga, before they were joined by Kriger in their meeting with US
political chief Nicole Johnson.
Overall, the team had more than 12 engagements.
The Government has since confirmed the quartet was on a
covert political mission.
Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet
(Presidential Communications) Mr George Charamba said: “They were what we call
consular infractions. Basically, that term refers to entry of foreign nationals
in a country without due process as defined by that country.”
Under the Geneva Convention, foreigners entering a country
under the cover of an embassy must notify the host country prior to arrival.
“As it turned out, the team arrived before any notification
of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Zimbabwe.
“Upon realising that their team was being shadowed, the
American Embassy sought, retrospectively, to fulfil this consular requirement
and then raised a note verbale, or a diplomatic note, only on the 5th of
February, 2024,” added Mr Charamba.
“Even then, that particular diplomatic note only disclosed
two persons of foreign origin, namely Brenda Lee Pearson and Norma Kriger.”
The diplomatic note, he also said, claimed that the duo was
set to be accompanied by a Zimbabwean national, Olivia Gumbo, who is believed
to be associated with the Navanti Group.
“Unknown to them, the Government of Zimbabwe knew that, in
fact, persons who had entered surreptitiously into the territory of Zimbabwe
were in fact four, not two as declared.
“Incidentally, the other undeclared two had been very
active on the ground, meeting interest groups, meeting leading opposition
members, NGOs and travelling around the country with the express purpose of
gathering information, and information of a political nature.”
He said the US authorities’ failure to abide by laid-down
diplomatic protocol meant that the Navanti team would be deported in terms of
Zimbabwean laws.
“Just the fact of one not timeously indicating the presence
on the territory of a sovereign country called Zimbabwe of foreigners is enough
offence to get those persons deported, let alone understating the number of
persons who have unlawfully entered the State of Zimbabwe, and on that score,
there is no politeness to be expected,” he said.
“The State will invoke its rough hands in order to enforce
the laws of the land, but to also get that foreign country to respect the
sovereignty of that country.
“Let me make it very categorically clear that whilst this
is a specific incident, the American government and its agencies are best
advised that Zimbabwe is determined, capable and prepared to deport as many
unlawful missions from any country, including mighty America, for as long as
those countries are prepared to raise such unlawful missions which violate the
integrity of Zimbabwe.”
Zimbabwe, he added, “shall be brutally efficient” and “use
the full might of our law” wherever the country’s sovereignty is threatened.
“That message must go out very, very clearly to all
countries, including the Americans,” he said.
“The size of the country, the military might of that
country, the economic might of that country, the diplomatic might of that
country is absolutely inconsequential when it comes to the sovereignty of this
country and the need to preserve it.”
Mr Charamba said the team’s mission to Zimbabwe was
manifestly political and meant to gauge the political environment ahead of the
2028 harmonised elections.
Washington was determined to modify its strategies
regarding interference in Zimbabwe’s internal politics following the drubbing
of their preferred party in last year’s general elections, he said.
“The mission of the quartet was intensely, exclusively
political,” he continued.
“It sought to interfere with the politics of this country
in spite of the fact that Americans are no stakeholders in the politics of
Zimbabwe.
“They have never been; should never be and will never be
stakeholders in the politics of Zimbabwe.
“The same way that Zimbabwe is not a player in the politics
of America.”
America, he said, must respect Zimbabwe’s sovereignty and
refrain from interfering in Zimbabwe’s domestic politics.
“Again, let me make this very clear: if America thinks it
has a holy mission to refashion the politics of this country after its own
image of democracy, they are out for a very rude awakening.
“That kind of politics, that kind of meddlesome politics,
simply will not be countenanced here.
“We are determined to frustrate them, to stop them in their
tracks until they realise American political dreams are the preserve of the
American people on American territory.
“They do not overspill to the continent of Africa, let
alone to the polity of Zimbabwe.
“We have nothing to do with their politics, we have nothing
to do with their model of dreaming.
“Any interference in the internal politics of Zimbabwe will
be resisted, and will be resisted vehemently.
“The post-election politics of Zimbabwe are a question for
Zimbabweans.
“They are not for the Americans; they are not an issue for
the Americans; they are not an issue for American experts, least of all an
issue for USAID.”
The teams’ meetings with members of the opposition were
also described as suspicious.
On February 10, Pearson and Kriger held a meeting with
former Citizens Coalition for Change representative for Harare East
constituency Rusty Markham at York Lodge.
Sources added that the meeting focused on an “intrusive
exploration of the country’s macro-political economy”. Sunday Mail
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