U.S. Halts Aid Over Zimbabwe Criticism

The Reagan Administration has suspended $13.5 million in aid to Zimbabwe this year and will not restore it until the Zimbabwe government retracts “unacceptable” criticism of the United States made at a Fourth of July reception attended by former President Jimmy Carter, officials here said Thursday.

“We see a pattern of diplomatic activities we find unacceptable,” said Chester A. Crocker, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

David Karimanzira, Zimbabwe’s minister of youth, sport and culture, offended the Administration in remarks he made at a U.S. Embassy-sponsored reception in Harare, the capital of the southern African country. In a speech, he attacked Washington for its refusal to impose economic sanctions on South Africa.

Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, who were guests at the reception, joined the U.S. charge d’affaires, Edward G. Lanpher, in walking out of the room a few minutes after Karimanzira began to speak.

Waiting for Apology

Two aid projects worth $9 million that were scheduled to be completed at signing ceremonies this week, a family-planning program and an agricultural development project, have been suspended pending a formal apology from the government of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.

Aid agreements reached earlier this year, totaling $7 million, will not be affected, State Department officials said. But $4.5 million that would have been available in the current fiscal year is also being held up.

In Zimbabwe, Prime Minister Robert Mugabe said that his foreign minister will send a personal appology to Carter for any “discomfort or inconvenience” because “we all feel he (Carter) was rightly embarrassed,” the Associated Press reported. But he defended the comments in question.

“That is not to say that what was said was inappropriate, so we have no apologies to make to the Reagan Administration,” Mugabe said. “We cannot be blackmailed into doing that which is inconsistent with our sovereignty and our convictions. . . . We are not the type that goes down on our knees and says ‘Mea culpa, mea culpa.’ . . . We do not confess to the Reagan Administration.”

“The position has been made abundantly clear to us: Unless you play the tune of the Reagan Administration you stand the risk of being denied the aid that has been promised.”)

The United States has been the largest provider of aid to Zimbabwe since a black majority government was established there in 1980 after nearly 15 years of civil war in what was then Rhodesia, a British colony. Most of the $370 million provided by Washington since independence was initiated during the Carter Administration.

State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said Wednesday that the “uncalled for behavior” of the Zimbabwean official was viewed by the Administration as “an insult both to the United States and to former President Jimmy Carter.”

Other U.S. officials, who asked not to be identified by name, said the injury was compounded by the fact that Zimbabwe Foreign Minister Witness Mangwende did not attend the reception but sent a minor Cabinet officer to deliver a Foreign Ministry address.